Swedish biopharma company BioArctic AB (STO: BIOA-B), which develops treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, said on Wednesday it has entered a research collaboration with Mesenkia Therapeutics to explore an antibody-based approach for glioblastoma, an aggressive and treatment-resistant brain cancer.

The partnership combines BioArctic's BrainTransporter technology with an antibody developed using Mesenkia's KITAIbodies platform. The antibody targets HVEM, a protein present on certain glioblastoma tumour cells, including tumour stem cells associated with recurrence and treatment resistance.

BioArctic will generate a drug candidate by linking its BrainTransporter technology with Mesenkia's antibody, after which both companies plan preclinical studies to validate the concept and determine next steps.

The collaboration marks BioArctic's first move into oncology and extends the potential application of its BrainTransporter platform beyond neurodegenerative diseases.

Mesenkia is a pre-clinical business developing biological drug candidates for glioblastoma, based on research from Uppsala University and the University of Tokyo. Its lead programme targets glioblastoma, while its KITAIbodies are designed to support future therapeutics across multiple indications.

BioArctic has research programmes in Parkinson's disease, ALS and Alzheimer's disease, several of which use its BrainTransporter technology.