Astellas, Ambryx Sign US$300 Million Antibody Drug Conjugate Deal

Astellas Pharma Inc. on Thursday entered into a collaboration with Ambrx Inc. for the discovery and development of novel antibody drug conjugates.

AsianScientist (Apr. 8, 2013) – Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma Inc. on Thursday entered into a collaboration with San Diego biotech Ambrx Inc. for the discovery and development of novel antibody drug conjugates. The deal was completed with Astellas’ Agensys unit in the United States.

Researchers use ADCs to deliver drugs in a directed manner to target sites. Ambrx’s optimized ADCs using site-specific conjugation technology demonstrated in pre-clinical settings a higher potency and a wider therapeutic index than ADCs created using conventional non-specific conjugation, it said.

Ambrx will receive an upfront payment of US$15 million from Astellas, and will be eligible for payments of up to US$285 million in potential near and long-term research, development, regulatory and sales-based milestones for an undisclosed number of targets for ADCs in oncology.

A portion of these milestones, as well as royalties on any net sales, will be contingent on eventual successful commercialization of products developed as a result of this partnership. Astellas will receive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize ADCs for oncology.

“Agensys, Inc., an affiliate of Astellas which specializes in therapeutic antibody research and development in cancer, has significant experience with ADCs as oncology therapeutics and is looking to further expand its capabilities in this area. Ambrx offers a novel approach to allow creation of site-specific and highly stable conjugations that have the potential to further optimize drug delivery to tumor cells.” said David Stover, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Agensys Site Head.

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Source: Astellas.
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