AbbVie and Xilio Therapeutics have announced a partnership worth over $2.1bn to develop tumour-activated, antibody-based immunotherapies.
The collaboration and option-to-licence agreement will include masked T-cell engagers and will combine AbbVie’s capabilities in oncology with Xilio’s proprietary tumour-activation technology.
Xilio outlined that it is currently using its platform to advance a pipeline of clinical and pre-clinical immunotherapies. This includes masked multi-specific molecules “designed to achieve tumour-selective activation by leveraging masking and other unique components that are optimised for the specific target,” it said.
The biotech will receive $52m in total upfront payments from AbbVie, including a $10m equity investment, and will be eligible to receive up to approximately $2.1bn in total payments for option-related fees and milestones, as well as tiered royalties.
Theodora Ross, vice president, early oncology research and development at AbbVie, said the company is “committed to expanding [its] research and development efforts in oncology”.
“This includes investigation of novel immunotherapy approaches that aim to generate improved next-generation cancer treatments for patients in need,” she said.
Xilio’s chief scientific officer, Uli Bialucha, added: “This collaboration with AbbVie… allows us to accelerate the expansion of our technology to next-generation immunotherapies, including T-cell engagers.
“We look forward to working with the AbbVie team to apply our deep protein engineering expertise coupled with tumour-selective activation through our novel formats for masked T-cell engagers.”
The announcement comes less than a month after AbbVie partnered with Neomorph to develop new drug candidates for multiple targets across oncology and immunology in a deal worth $1.64bn.
The collaboration and option-to-licence agreement will see the companies use Neomorph’s discovery platform to develop molecular glue degraders, a relatively new class of drugs designed to selectively target and trigger degradation of proteins that drive immune system dysregulation cancer growth.
AbbVie also joined forces with Simcere Zaiming earlier in January to develop an investigational drug candidate for multiple myeloma.
The deal, worth over $1bn, covers Simcere Zaiming’s SIM0500, a trispecific antibody currently in phase 1 clinical development in the US and China for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.