AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) has announced a partnership agreement with Genmab AS (NASDAQ:GMAB) for the joint development and commercialization of cancer treatment.
Abbvie and Genmab enter cancer development agreement
The collaboration is for the joint development of Genmab’s three early-stage bispecific investigational antibody products. They will also enter a discovery research partnership for differentiated antibody cancer therapeutics. The programs the companies will be co-developing are DuoBody-CD3xCD20 (epcoritamab), DuoHexaBody-CD37 as well as DuoBody-CD3x5T4.
According to terms of the agreement, Abbvie will pay $750 million upfront to Genmab with an addition $3.15 billion expected in regulatory, development and sales milestones. The partnership will combine the latest discovery and development platform and next-gen bispecific antibody therapeutic candidates of Genmab with the clinical expertise. Equally, it will combine it with the proprietary antibody-drug conjugate platform as well as Abbvie’s commercial leadership globally in hematological cancers.
Equally, the companies will combine the novel antibodies form the DuoBody technology of Genmab and the ADC and payload technology of Abbvie. They will use them to select and also develop four additional differentiated next-gen antibody products across hematological malignancies and solid tumors. The ADC technology of Abbvie enables direct delivery of therapeutic toxin to cancer cells and provides a targeted and less toxic treatment approach. On the other hand, the DuoBody-CD3 tech of Genmab works by engaging and selectively directing cytotoxic T cells to tumors to trigger an immune response towards the malignant tumor cells.
Combination of technologies to broaden the development of bispecific antibodies
Jan van de Winkel, the CEO of Genmab, indicated that the collaboration will allow the companies to accelerated and broaden its development of bispecific antibodies that include epcoritamab. This will help in bringing the therapies quickly to cancer patients. The CEO added that the announcement marks a new beginning for the company through the combination of the companies’ technologies and knowledge in antibody biology to develop the next-gen antibody tech platforms.
Abbvie President and Vice-chairman Michael Severino indicated that epcoritamab is a strong fit for the company’s hematological oncology franchise. He added that the combination will help the companies advance treatment in battling cancer.
