AZ's MedImmune signs $200m immuno-oncology partnership with Compugen

AstraZeneca’s biologic R&D unit MedImmune is set to enter a partnership with Israeli drug firm Compugen to develop bi-specific and multi-specific immuno-oncology antibody products, it has emerged.

Under the terms of the exclusive licensing deal, which boasts a potential value of more than $200 million in milestone payments, MedImmune will have exclusive license to develop multiple products derived from Compugen’s pipeline, handling all R&D and commercialisation efforts. As part of the partnership, MedImmune will make an upfront payment of $10 million to Compugen.

The deal has the potential to be worth even more should additional products be developed; in this event, Compugen would be entitled to extra milestone and royalty payments, while the company will maintain all other rights to its products for use as both mono- and combo therapies.

“This licensing deal allows us to monetise specific scientific advances in our programmes, while we continue to advance our lead programmes into clinical trials,” remarked Compugen President and CEO Dr Anat Cohen-Dayag. “We are committed to our strategy of selectively collaborating with biopharmaceutical companies for the development of first-in-class products against our diverse, computationally-derived portfolio of targets.”

Ronald Herbst, Vice President, Oncology Research & Development, at MedImmune, added: “This agreement with Compugen will support our abilities to generate novel immunotherapy targets which, coupled with MedImmune's expertise in antibody engineering, can advance our goal of delivering treatments to meaningfully improve the lives of cancer patients.”

Matt Fellows