There’s a new biotech startup in town: Kodosil Bio.

The by-product of a licensing deal between San Diego biologics developer BioAtla and Cleveland-based biotech incubator BioMotiv, the company will focus on development of a monoclonal antibody for inflammatory bowel diseases and cancers.

For now, details are pretty scant on the new company. According to a joint announcement from BioMotiv and BioAtla, the drug candidate that the new company is working with targets the Th22 cell/IL-22 pathway, which is thought to play a key role in gastrointestinal inflammatory and autoimmune processes, Kodosil says.

Consistent with BioMotiv’s business model, the new venture will manage development of the antibody through the proof-of-concept stage. BioMotiv, the for-profit component of the $250 million Harrington Project for Discovery & Development, in-licenses early-stage technologies and uses its leadership team to advance them to phase 1b/2a clinical studies. After that, it would try to out-license them.

Under the terms of the deal, BioAtla would receive milestone payments and royalties on sales of all potential therapeutics developed through the collaboration, or a portion of the proceeds if the technology is out-licensed.

This is the third company that’s been launched from the program. Last summer, BioMotiv teamed up with New York University on a spin-off to develop treatments for inflammatory diseases. In the fall, it announced the formation of Dual Therapeutics to commercialize potential cancer treatments discovered at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Increasing use of pricey biologic therapies are expected to help grow the market for IBD treatments, according to research firm Visiongain.

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