Date: 2014-12-18
Type of information: Licensing agreement
Compound: novel biologic drug candidates combining Xencor XmAb® bispecific and immune inhibitor technologies
Company: Novo Nordisk (Denmark) Xencor (USA -CA)
Therapeutic area: undisclosed
Type agreement: collaboration licensing
Action mechanism: bispecific antibody/immune inhibitor.Xencor\'s XmAb® bispecific Fc domain technology is designed to maintain full-length antibody properties in a bispecific antibody, potentially enabling favorable in vivo half-life and simplified manufacturing. FcyRIIb (IIb), also called CD32b, is a receptor for Fc domains on B cells and other immune cells. When engaged, the IIb receptor blocks immune activation pathways and traffics bound antigens out of circulation. Xencor has discovered a series of Fc domain variants with up to a 400-fold increase in binding affinity to FcγRIIb derived from just two amino acid changes. These Immune Inhibitor Fc domains greatly heighten the properties of IIb receptor engagement and have potential as building blocks for drug candidates in autoimmune, allergic and inflammatory diseases.
Disease:
Details: * On December 18, 2014, Xencor announced that it has entered into a collaboration and licensing agreement with Novo Nordisk to jointly discover novel biologic drug candidates for an undisclosed target by combining multiple Xencor XmAb® technologies, including bispecific and immune inhibitor technologies. Xencor and Novo Nordisk will use Xencor\'s XmAb® bispecific technology to build a variety of molecular formats that can engage the target and also modulate desired immune functions using Xencor\'s XmAb immune inhibitor technology. XmAb immune inhibitor Fc domains target FcγRIIb (also known as CD32b), and have shown to be potent inhibitors of immune responses in clinical trials. In addition to its proprietary technologies, Xencor will also contribute expertise in studying immune functions of biologics and immune system modulation. Novo Nordisk will collaborate by using its proprietary technology during candidate discovery and will have all development and commercial rights.
Financial terms: Xencor is eligible to receive up to approximately $175 millionin upfront payments, research support, and pre-clinical and clinical development, regulatory and sales milestones, in addition to future royalties.
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