Pyxis Oncology, Inc., a clinical-stage company focused on developing next-generation therapeutics to target difficult-to-treat cancers, and Apexigen, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing antibody therapeutics for oncology, entered a definitive agreement by which Pyxis Oncology will acquire Apexigen for a total enterprise value of approximately $16 million.

“This acquisition uniquely positions Pyxis Oncology at the forefront of antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) innovation by adding humanized antibody generation to our Flexible Antibody Conjugation Technology (FACT) ADC toolkit acquired from Pfizer and expands our clinical pipeline into Phase 2 in select solid tumor types by leveraging our founding heritage of immuno-oncology expertise—all while maintaining our cash runway into 2025,” said Lara Sullivan, President, and CEO of Pyxis Oncology.

Sotigalimab is a CD40 agonist with best-in-class potential and it has demonstrated anti-cancer activity in patients who previously progressed on PD-(L)1 inhibitors, with impressive, durable remissions.

“This activity may not only be synergistic with immune checkpoint inhibitors, but also rescue their activity in patients who are refractory or have relapsed. We are excited about the potential to acquire the commercially and clinically validated APXiMAB platform to generate novel antibodies that can be optimized for targeted payload delivery. In combination with our proprietary FACT platform, we believe Pyxis Oncology is positioned with an unmatched, end-to-end system for designing and producing novel, next-generation ADC candidates with improved potency, stability, and tolerability,” said Sullivan.

Xiaodong Yang, CEO of Apexigen, said, “I am proud of the foundational work Apexigen has done to advance sotigalimab into Phase 2 trials across multiple solid tumor types. Apexigen and Pyxis Oncology share a common vision of bringing innovative solutions to oncology patients. With Pyxis Oncology’s strong cash position and its commitment to further sotigalimab’s development, we believe that this transaction will greatly enhance the opportunity to efficiently advance sotigalimab for patients suffering from a variety of difficult-to-treat cancers. Additionally, coupling our APXiMAB antibody platform with Pyxis Oncology’s complementary ADC technology platform will magnify the therapeutic potential of the APXiMAB platform.

Sotigalimab has been evaluated in more than 500 patients in clinical trials and demonstrated strong activity, including rapid, deep, and durable responses and a favorable tolerability profile, across multiple difficult-to-treat tumor types.