Lilly teams up with ImmunoGen on antibody-drug conjugates

pharmafile | December 21, 2011 | News story | |  ADC, Cancer, Immunogen, T-DM1, conjugate, lilly, oncology 

ImmunoGen has signed a new collaboration with Eli Lilly to develop antibody-drug conjugate for cancer treatments.

Lilly will pay an upfront fee of $20 million for rights to take a limited number of exclusive licenses to use ImmunoGen’s maytansinoid Targeted Antibody Payload (TAP) technology with Lilly monoclonal antibodies to develop novel antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) cancer therapeutics.

Daniel Junius, President and chief executive of ImmunoGen, commented: “Lilly is a leader in the development of innovative, anticancer medicines. Their commitment to developing significant new antibody-based therapeutics makes them an attractive partner for ImmunoGen.”

“Today’s technological advances offer hope for future cancer patients. Lilly has a diverse pipeline of targeted cancer therapies, and is focused on the development of agents with clear clinical benefit in specific patient populations,” said Greg Plowman, vice president Lilly Oncology Research and senior vice president of research for ImClone. “The use of ImmunoGen’s technology to develop antibody-drug conjugates holds promise in helping Lilly achieve these improved outcomes for patients.”

Each license taken entitles ImmunoGen to receive milestone payments potentially totaling approximately $200 million and also royalties on the sales of any resulting product(s). ImmunoGen also is entitled to receive financial compensation for any research and/or manufacturing done on behalf of Lilly. Lilly is responsible for the development, manufacturing, and marketing of any products resulting from this agreement.

ImmunoGen’s Targeted Antibody Payload (TAP) Technology

 A TAP compound consists of a tumour-targeting manufactured antibody with one of ImmunoGen’s proprietary, highly potent cancer cell-killing agents attached as a payload. The antibody serves to deliver the payload specifically to tumour cells, which then kill these cells.

There are now numerous TAP compounds in clinical development – ImmunoGen’s partners include Amgen, Bayer HealthCare, Biotest, Lilly, Novartis, Roche, and Sanofi.

Most notable among these is T-DM1, Immunogen’s collaboration with Roche, which has now been filed with the FDA.