On May 18, 2016 MacroGenics, Inc. (Nasdaq: MGNX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, as well as various autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases, reported a global collaboration and license agreement for MGD015, a preclinical bispecific molecule, with Janssen Biotech, Inc (Press release, MacroGenics, MAY 18, 2016, View Source [SID:1234512511]). Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo! This product candidate incorporates MacroGenics’ proprietary Dual-Affinity Re-Targeting, or DART, platform to simultaneously target CD3 and an undisclosed tumor target for the potential treatment of various hematological malignancies and solid tumors.
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Under the terms of the agreement and subject to the termination or expiration of any applicable waiting periods under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, MacroGenics will receive a $75 million upfront license fee. Janssen will complete IND-enabling activities and be fully responsible for future clinical development of MGD015. Assuming successful development and commercialization, MacroGenics could receive up to an additional $665 million in clinical, regulatory and commercialization milestone payments. MacroGenics may elect to fund a portion of late-stage clinical development in exchange for a profit share in the U.S. and Canada. If commercialized, MacroGenics would be eligible to receive double-digit royalties on any global net sales and has the option to co-promote MGD015 with Janssen in the U.S.
"MGD015 is a promising product candidate that employs MacroGenics’ proprietary DART platform to enable a potent redirected T-cell killing mechanism with ‘off-the-shelf’ convenience. This approach is already being evaluated in five other clinical-stage DART programs," said Scott Koenig, M.D., Ph.D., President and CEO of MacroGenics. "Janssen represents the ideal partner for MGD015, given its track record of successfully developing and commercializing transformative oncology therapies. This collaboration builds on an existing Janssen relationship around MGD011, a DART molecule targeting CD19 and CD3, which is now being evaluated in the clinic."
About MGD015
MGD015 is designed to redirect T cells, via their CD3 component, to eliminate cells which overexpress an undisclosed antigen in various hematological malignancies and solid tumors. MacroGenics has demonstrated that MGD015 is able to kill these targeted cells both in vitro and in vivo, with high response rates in several mouse tumor xenograft models. In addition, this product candidate and the Company’s other DART molecules that redirect T cells against cancer targets are manufactured using a conventional antibody platform without the complexity of having to genetically modify T cells from individual patients as required by approaches such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells.