Amgen has completed its previously announced acquisition of a clinical-stage biotechnology firm, Teneobio in a deal worth up to $2.5bn.
The deal was announced in July this year.
Amgen paid $900m in upfront cash to purchase Teneobio’s all outstanding equity. It will also make future contingent milestone payments worth up to $1.6bn in cash to the former Teneobio equity holders, as previously agreed.
The scope of the acquisition included Teneobio’s bispecific and multispecific antibody technologies that will complement the Amgen’s BiTE platform and current antibody capabilities.
It will also help the company to speed up the discovery and development of novel molecules to treat various diseases in Amgen’s major therapeutic areas.
The deal also includes Teneobio’s Phase I bispecific T cell-engager, TNB-585, as well as many preclinical oncology pipeline assets with the potential for investigational new drug (IND) application filings in near future.
The TNB-585 is being developed to treat metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).
It also complements the current prostate cancer portfolio of Amgen that consists of two Phase I assets, acapatamab and AMG 509.
These three therapies use different approaches to treat prostate cancer.
Amgen Research and Development executive vice-president David Reese said: “Amgen is pioneering the application of T cell engagers and a broad array of bi and multispecific biologics to treat a range of human diseases across our therapeutic areas of focus.
“Teneobio’s expertise and technologies will further expand our repertoire of multispecific architectures and advance our overarching mission to develop transformative innovation to bring to market best-in-class products to serve our patients.”
Teneobio’s three affiliates, TeneoTwo (anti-CD19/CD3), TeneoFour (anti-CD38 enzyme inhibitor) and TeneoTen (anti-HBV/CD3), were spun off to its current shareholders, before completion of the deal.