Gilead inks deal for cancer-beating antibody
Gilead will have an exclusive licence and will pay MacroGenics $60 million upfront | Deal includes tiered, double-digit royalties on worldwide net sales.
Biopharmaceutical companies MacroGenics and Gilead Sciences have announced a partnership to develop and market a blood cancer antibody.
Under the agreement, confirmed on October 17, Gilead has an exclusive option to licence MGD024, developed on MacroGenics’s antibody tech platform.
According to Gilead, the antibody could potentially treat blood cancers, including acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).
The antibody will be designed to minimise life-threatening cytokine-release syndrome (CRS), while allowing intermittent dosing for affected patients.
The agreement also allows for the two companies to work together on a further two research programmes in future.
Gilead will pay MacroGenics $60 million upfront. The latter is then eligible for up to $1.7 billion in option fees, target nomination and development, commercial and regulatory milestones as well as tiered, double-digit royalties on worldwide net MGD024 sales. MacroGenics will also receive a flat royalty on worldwide net sales of products of the two additional research programmes.
Senior vice president, oncology clinical development at Gilead, Bill Grossman, said: “MacroGenics’ bispecific expertise naturally complements Gilead’s portfolio strengths in immuno-oncology and our growing haematology franchise.”
He added: “We believe MGD024, with its potential to reduce CRS and permit intermittent dosing through a longer half-life, could translate to more patient-friendly dosing and enhanced clinical outcomes for people living with AML and MDS.”
Scott Koenig, president and CEO of MacroGenics, said that rapid advances over the last decade have made the antibody a promising target in oncology research.
“Advancing our bispecific DART molecule, MGD024, through a strategic collaboration with the team at Gilead will accelerate our ability to drive further development of MGD024 to the potential benefit of people living with blood cancers.”
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