Xencor has obtained a milestone payment from Pfizer. The amount of the payment was not disclosed. The payment was triggered by the initiation of human clinical trials of a novel monoclonal antibody therapeutic that was optimised using Xencor technologies under a March 2009 technology license agreement.
As per the terms of the agreement, Pfizer has access to Xencor’s antibody optimisation technology during a non-exclusive research period for evaluation of the ‘Fc’ engineering technology in several of its discovery projects.
Earlier in March 2009, Xencor has entered into a technology license and evaluation agreement with Pfizer to optimise the performance of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. Pfizer was expected to apply Xencor’s proprietary Xtend antibody half-life prolongation technology and XmAb ADCC enhancing technology to its antibody drug candidates.
Under the agreement, Xencor was expected to receive an upfront payment from Pfizer and was eligible to receive additional consideration based on Pfizer’s successful commercialisation of products that incorporate the Xencor technology.
Bassil Dahiyat, CEO of Xencor, said: “Xencor’s Fc antibody technologies continue to be validated by the progress our team and partners are making in developing therapeutic antibodies and advancing them into the clinic.”