It’s not a peptide drug deal, but he deal struck in late June between Novartis and US biotech, Xencor, does highlight pharma’s ongoing interest in pre-clinical cancer therapeutics.
Central to the deal were two Xencor drug candidates for blood cancer, both of which are yet to commence Phase 1 trials. XmAb14045 is being developed for acute myeloid leukemia and XmAb13676 for B-cell malignancies.
The headline deal value of US$2.41 billion included a $150 million upfront with the rest dependent on clinical, regulatory and sales milestones. Development costs are to be shared by the two companies with Xencor keeping U.S. commercialization rights and Novartis paying tiered, low-double-digit royalties for sales of the two drugs outside of the U.S.
Novartis has also picked up global rights to four additional targets that will be engineered by Xencor and a global, nonexclusive license to use Xencor’s antibody engineering technologies in up to 10 molecules.
XmAb14045 and XmAb13676 have both been developed using Xencor’s Xencor’s bispecific Fc domain technology.
The following explanation comes from Xencor’s website.
Xencor’s bispecific Fc domains have generated a broad array of novel drug candidates, the first of which are tumor-targeted antibodies that contain both a tumor antigen binding domain and a cytotoxic T-cell binding domain (CD3 binding domain). They activate T cells at the site of the tumor for highly potent killing of malignant cells. Our format allows us to tune the potency of the T-cell killing, potentially improving the tolerability of tumor immunotherapy. We have demonstrated highly effective and well-tolerated killing of target cells in a variety of in vivo and in vitro models for our lead candidates.
A personalised tool to help users track selected stocks. Delivering real-time notifications on price updates, announcements, and performance stats on each to help make informed investment decisions.
(20min delay)