Regeneron deepens relationship with CytomX, adding up to $2B and eight targets

 

All told, CytomX Therapeutics now stands to receive up to $4 billion over the course of its partnership with Regeneron, if all milestones are met.

Regeneron continues its deal streak with an expanded collaboration with longtime partner CytomX Therapeutics to develop bispecific antibodies for cancer.

The companies first linked up in 2022, with Regeneron at the time fronting $30 million and promising up to $2 billion in milestones. The pharma is now throwing more money and potential targets into the mix, potentially doubling CytomX’s bounty. For another $37 million upfront and up to $2 billion more in contingent payments, Regeneron will add two more targets to the alliance and have the option to name six more targets in the future.

All told, CytomX could notch a $4 billion windfall from its engagement with Regeneron.

At the heart of this partnership is CytomX’s Probody platform, which it uses to mask biologic therapies. By blocking off a drug’s active sites using certain peptides, CytomX can render a therapeutic molecule inert until it enters the vicinity of cancer cells, at which point these sheathing peptides are digested by enzymes that the tumor secretes.

CytomX’s platform exploits this tumor microenvironment to ensure that its medicines are activated only when they’re needed, in turn minimizing off-target effects and toxicities, according to its website. Regeneron wants to harness this approach to develop its own conditionally activated bispecific therapies, though the pharma hasn’t yet shared specific cancer indications it plans to go after.

CytomX will collaborate with Regeneron on discovery and validation activities, while the larger company will take full responsibility for preclinical and clinical development of programs that it chooses to move forward with, according to the Wednesday release. Regeneron will also be in charge of the regulatory and commercial activities for those assets and has promised CytomX tiered royalties on net global sales.

In recent days, Regeneron has picked up its dealmaking pace. Last month, the company put up to $2.3 billion on the line in a research collaboration with Parabilis Medicines, aiming to develop antibody-helicon conjugates—opening a novel class of drugs that combine antibodies with peptides. A month earlier, Regeneron partnered with Telix for $40 million upfront and undisclosed milestones to enter the radiopharma arena.

For CytomX, the expanded Regeneron deal comes amid the pullback of other high-powered partners. In an SEC filing last month for its first-quarter report, the biotech disclosed that both Astellas and Bristol Myers Squibb have elected to pull out of their respective collaborations with CytomX.

https://www.biospace.com/deals/regeneron-deepens-relationship-with-cytomx-adding-up-to-2b-and-eight-targets