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news.MacroGenics has licensed its preclinical cancer therapy MGD015 to Janssen Biotech under a global collaboration that may generate nearly $740m for the clinical-stage biopharmaceutical firm.
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MGD015 is a bispecific molecule that incorporates MacroGenics’ Dual-Affinity Re-Targeting (DART) platform.
It redirects T cells, through their CD3 component, to remove cells that overexpress an undisclosed antigen in several hematological malignancies and solid tumors.
MacroGenics said it was successful to show that MGD015 can kill the targeted cells both in vitro and in vivo, with high response rates in various mouse tumor xenograft models.
MGD015 is under development as a potential treatment for several hematological malignancies and solid tumors.
Janssen has agreed to pay MacroGenics a $75m license fee upfront and oversee future clinical development of MGD015 as well as complete IND-enabling activities.
Janssen also agreed to pay MacroGenics up to an additional $665m for achieving clinical, regulatory, and commercialization milestones.
MacroGenics may elect to fund a part of late-stage clinical development in exchange for a profit share in the US and Canada.
After commercialization, 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 US.
MacroGenics president and CEO Scott Koenig said: "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.
"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."