Takeda buys license to ImmunoGen cancer tech
pharmafile | March 24, 2015 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | ADC, Immunogen, Takeda, antibody, conjugate, merger
Takeda has licensed the exclusive rights to use ImmunoGen’s popular antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology to develop new cancer drugs.
The license will allow Takeda to use the technology to produce targeted therapies for up to two undisclosed types of cancer, with the option to take a license for a third target for an additional payment. The Japanese firm will be responsible for the development, manufacturing and marketing of any products resulting from the agreement.
“ADC technology is a critically important tool in addressing unmet needs in oncology,” says Christopher Claiborne, head of the oncology drug discovery unit at Takeda. “By partnering with ImmunoGen, we are able to leverage this important technology in our R&D program and bring novel agents through the clinic.”
ImmunoGen will receive $20 million upfront from Takeda and will also be eligible to milestone payments of up to $210 million and royalties from any marketed products.
An ADC combines a monoclonal antibody that targets and binds to cancer cells with an agent designed to kill these cells when it reaches them. These treatments can have fewer side effects than chemotherapy, which does not discriminate between cancerous cells and healthy cells in this way.
Cell-killing agents developed by ImmunoGen are used in over ten ADCs in development, and are a key component of Roche’s Kadcyla (trastuzumab emtansine), the first drug using the company’s technology to reach the market.
It is also developing compounds in partnership with Amgen, Bayer, Biotest, Novartis and Sanofi, and has three of its own candidates in clinical testing.
However, the firm was dealt a blow in December 2014 when Roche posted disappointing results for a new trial into Kadcyla, which resulted in ImmunoGen’s shares falling by 50 per cent. The two companies had previously abandoned a trial into a small-cell lung cancer treatment in 2013 after deciding that it would show no benefit.
George Underwood
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