F-star strikes antibody deal worth up to a potential $1.35bn with Janssen Biotech
F-star Therapeutics has struck a deal that could be worth up to $1.35billion with Janssen Biotech, Inc.
Under the licence and collaboration agreement, the Babraham Research Campus biopharmaceutical company will receive upfront fees of $17.5million.
The deal gives Janssen a worldwide, exclusive royalty-bearing licence to research, develop and commercialise up to five novel bispecific antibodies, directed towards its therapeutic targets, using F-star’s Fcab and mAB2 platforms.
Janssen, which is one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, is responsible for all the research, development and commercialisation activities under the deal.
F-star will also be eligible for near-term fees, potential further milestones of up to $1.35billion and potential tiered mid-single digit royalties on annual net sales.
Dr Neil Brewis, chief scientific officer of F-star, said: “We are pleased to collaborate with Janssen and leverage the science of F-star’s proprietary tetravalent bispecific technology. Beyond our proprietary pipeline, we believe there is broad potential for our mAb2 platform to produce multiple next-generation bispecific antibody therapeutics.”
F-star, which is focused on immunotherapies to treat cancer, has proprietary technology that enables substitutions in the Fc region of a natural antibody. This creates two additional distinct antigen binding sites. The resulting Fcab - which stands for Fc with antigen binding - is a building block that can be inserted into a natural IgG antibody format, creating tetravalent bispecific antibodies. These are able to bind, simultaneously, to two different antigens.
Its mAb2 bispecific antibodies conserve the natural human antibody format, with greater than 95 per cent identity to reduce toxicity and immunogenicity risk, while making their manufacture easier.
Fcab building blocks can also be used to generate tri-specific antibodies and fusion proteins.
The company has 230 granted patents and more than 150 pending applications covering its technology and product pipeline.
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