PARTNERING
Heidelberg Pharma and Huadong Medicine announced strategic partnership on ADCs
Heidelberg Pharma and Huadong Medicine announced that the companies have entered into a strategic partnership with the signing of an exclusive licensing agreement as well as an investment agreement. The agreements were concluded with wholly owned subsidiaries of Huadong, one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in China with a focus on oncology and ADC research, development, and commercialization. Huadong Medicine will become the second-largest shareholder in oncology biotech Heidelberg Pharma as part of a partnership in which the China-based company will gain rights in Asia to at least two antibody-drug candidates. The deal includes local, ex-Japan rights to HDP-101, which targets BCMA and became Heidelberg’s first clinical program this month; and HDP-103, which targets PSMA. Both use Heidelberg’s ATAC platform. Huadong will also gain options to a program targeting CD37 and another with an undisclosed target. Heidelberg will receive $20 million up front and is eligible for $910 million in milestones, plus royalties; Huadong will receive a 35% stake as part of a rights issue and share transfer.
OBI Pharma entered license agreement with Odeon Therapeutics for ADCs in China
OBI Pharma, and Odeon Therapeutics have entered into an exclusive license agreement whereby OBI grants rights of OBI-999, a novel antibody-drug conjugate, and OBI-833, a therapeutic cancer vaccine, targeting the tumor antigen Globo H in China, Hong Kong and Macau to Odeon. OBI will grant Odeon exclusive rights to develop, register and commercialize OBI-999 and OBI-833 for human cancer therapy in China, Hong Kong, and Macao. Odeon will issue to OBI fully paid equity equivalent to US$ 12 million upon signing. OBI is eligible for development and commercialization milestones totaling up to US$ 188 million. The company is also eligible to receive tiered double-digit royalties on net sales. Odeon will also be responsible for all development costs and all subsequent regulatory and commercialization costs of OBI-999 and OBI-833 in China, Hong Kong, and Macao.
Intellia and ONK announced collaboration on allogeneic CRISPR edited NK cell therapies
Intellia Therapeutics and ONK Therapeutics announced a licensing and collaboration agreement, which grants ONK a non-exclusive license to Intellia’s proprietary ex vivo CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing platform and its lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-based delivery technologies to develop up to five allogeneic NK cell therapies. ONK will receive exclusive rights to certain Intellia guide RNAs (gRNAs) resulting from the collaboration for use in engineering those NK cell products. ONK will be responsible for preclinical and clinical development for the engineered NK cell therapies covered under the agreement. Intellia will be eligible to receive up to $184 million per product in development and commercial milestone payments, as well as up to mid-single digit royalties on potential future sales. In addition, the agreement grants Intellia options to co-develop and co-commercialize up to two products worldwide with rights to lead commercialization in the US ONK retains lead commercialization rights ex-US.
ImmunoGen announced license agreement of its camptothecin ADC platform with Lilly
Immunogen announced a global, multi-year definitive licensing agreement whereby it granted Lilly exclusive rights to research, develop, and commercialize ADCs directed to targets selected by Lilly based on ImmunoGen's novel camptothecin technology. ImmunoGen retains full rights to the camptothecin platform for all targets not covered by the Lilly license. Lilly will pay ImmunoGen an upfront payment of $13 million, reflecting initial targets selected by Lilly. Lilly may select a pre-specified number of additional targets, with ImmunoGen eligible to receive an additional $32.5 million in exercise fees if Lilly licenses the full number of targets. ImmunoGen is eligible to receive up to $1.7 billion in potential target program exercise fees and milestone payments based on the achievement of milestones. ImmunoGen is also eligible for tiered royalties as a percentage of worldwide commercial sales by Lilly. Lilly is responsible for all costs associated with research and development.
