Taylor Wessing advises Cumulus Oncology on its exclusive GPR68 licence and development collaboration with leadXpro

Cumulus Oncology and leadXpro announced a collaboration in 2023 to develop small molecules against GPR68, an important proton sensing G protein coupled receptor. Achieving a world first, the partnership has identified in under 12 months, a series of potent and selective small molecules for therapeutic intervention in cancer and inflammation, which have been (together with associated IP) exclusively licensed to Cumulus Oncology.

Cumulus Oncology is Europe’s first oncology-focused biotech company creation factory dedicated to the development of novel therapeutics. It sources novel oncology assets from academic institutes, commercial drug discovery groups, and biopharmaceutical companies as well as its own internal asset search engine. The company incorporates the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms into its decision-making process to prioritise targets and assets and build patient sub-group hypotheses.

Life Sciences partner Colin McCall commented: "We are thrilled to see this Cumulus project meet this excellent milestone in such a short period. Together with their partner leadXpro they have been able to massively accelerate the drug discovery process for this important GPCR. We are excited to see how the next phase of accelerated drug optimisation progresses and to be part of this journey with Cumulus."

The Taylor Wessing team was led by partner Colin McCall with support from senior associate Charlie Adams and associate Nick Vollers in the patents team.