Sector News

Zymeworks could get up to $485M in expanded Daiichi I-O deal

May 15, 2018
Life sciences

When Zymeworks and Daiichi Sankyo initially teamed up on bispecific antibodies in 2016, they kept the financial details under wraps. Now, the pair is entering a new license agreement that could potentially be worth $484.7 million.

Under the original deal, Zymeworks licensed its Azymetric and Efect platforms to Daiichi Sankyo to develop a bispecific antibody therapy, for which Zymeworks is eligible to pick up milestone payments and royalties. It also received a license to certain immuno-oncology antibodies from Daiichi with the right to research, develop and market multiple bispecific products in exchange for royalties.

The new agreement sees the Vancouver-based biotech granting the Japanese pharma two more licenses for an upfront technology access fee of $18 million. It stands to receive up to $466.7 in clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones, with tiered royalties also up for grabs.

“Expanding our relationship with a leading global pharmaceutical partner like Daiichi Sankyo is extremely satisfying as it underscores the power, versatility and attractiveness of our technology platforms,” said Ali Tehrani, Ph.D., president and CEO of Zymeworks. “Having already used our platforms to discover one bispecific antibody, Daiichi Sankyo now has increased access to our technology to create additional therapeutic candidates. We are pleased to be working with a healthcare pioneer with a proven track record of over 100 years of innovation leading to major breakthroughs in patient care.”

The Azymetric technology works by doubling up on a drug’s potential target, offering a complementary approach to the Efect platform, a library of antibody Fc modifications that can be used to orchestrate an immune response: either turning it up or tamping it down.

Zymeworks has been on a dealmaking roll over the past few years. This includes an agreement with Janssen last November around six bispecific antibodies that saw it pick up $50 million up front, with another potential $282 million in development milestones and up to $1.12 billion in sales payments. Also in 2017, Zymeworks inked an R&D pact with The University of Victoria and BC Cancer Agency to develop engineered cytokine and cytokine receptor pairs.

By Amirah Al Idrus

Source: Fierce Biotech

comments closed

Related News

March 24, 2024

Johnson Matthey to sell its Medical Devices business for $700 million

Life sciences

Johnson Matthey Plc (JM; London) announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell 100% of its Medical Device Components business (MDC) to Montagu Private Equity (Montagu) for cash consideration of US$700 million (£550 million) on a cash free debt free basis.

March 24, 2024

Lonza acquires biologics manufacturing plant in California from Roche

Life sciences

Lonza AG (Basel, Switzerland) announced it has signed an agreement to acquire the Genentech large-scale biologics manufacturing site in Vacaville, Calif. from Roche (Basel, Switzerland) for $1.2 billion. The acquisition will significantly increase Lonza’s large-scale biologics manufacturing capacity.

March 24, 2024

Roquette to acquire IFF Pharma Solutions to boost global excipient presence

Life sciences

Roquette plans to acquire International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) Pharma Solutions for an enterprise value of up to €2.85 billion (US$3.09 billion). With the acquisition set to close in the first half of 2025, the plant-based ingredient and pharmaceutical excipients supplier aims to reinforce its position in the pharmaceutical industry.

How can we help you?

We're easy to reach