- MacroGenics licenses MGD015 to Janssen
- $75 Million upfront license fee paid to MacroGenics
- MacroGenics may elect to fund a portion of late-stage development costs in exchange for a U.S. and Canada profit share
- MacroGenics may elect to co-promote in the United States
Rockville, Maryland, May 18, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — MacroGenics, Inc. (Nasdaq: MGNX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, as well as various autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases, today announced a global collaboration and license agreement for MGD015, a preclinical bispecific molecule, with Janssen Biotech, Inc. This product candidate incorporates MacroGenics’ proprietary Dual-Affinity Re-Targeting, or DART®, platform to simultaneously target CD3 and an undisclosed tumor target for the potential treatment of various hematological malignancies and solid tumors.
Under the terms of the agreement and subject to the termination or expiration of any applicable waiting periods under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, MacroGenics will receive a $75 million upfront license fee. Janssen will complete IND-enabling activities and be fully responsible for future clinical development of MGD015. Assuming successful development and commercialization, MacroGenics could receive up to an additional $665 million in clinical, regulatory and commercialization milestone payments. MacroGenics may elect to fund a portion of late-stage clinical development in exchange for a profit share in the U.S. and Canada. If commercialized, MacroGenics would be eligible to receive double-digit royalties on any global net sales and has the option to co-promote MGD015 with Janssen in the U.S.
“MGD015 is a promising product candidate that employs MacroGenics’ proprietary DART platform to enable a potent redirected T-cell killing mechanism with ‘off-the-shelf’ convenience. This approach is already being evaluated in five other clinical-stage DART programs,” said Scott Koenig, M.D., Ph.D., President and CEO of MacroGenics. “Janssen represents the ideal partner for MGD015, given its track record of successfully developing and commercializing transformative oncology therapies. This collaboration builds on an existing Janssen relationship around MGD011, a DART molecule targeting CD19 and CD3, which is now being evaluated in the clinic.”
About MGD015
MGD015 is designed to redirect T cells, via their CD3 component, to eliminate cells which overexpress an undisclosed antigen in various hematological malignancies and solid tumors. MacroGenics has demonstrated that MGD015 is able to kill these targeted cells both in vitro and in vivo, with high response rates in several mouse tumor xenograft models. In addition, this product candidate and the Company’s other DART molecules that redirect T cells against cancer targets are manufactured using a conventional antibody platform without the complexity of having to genetically modify T cells from individual patients as required by approaches such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells.
About MacroGenics, Inc.
MacroGenics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, as well as autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases. The company generates its pipeline of product candidates primarily from its proprietary suite of next-generation antibody-based technology platforms. The combination of MacroGenics’ technology platforms and protein engineering expertise has allowed the Company to generate promising product candidates and enter into several strategic collaborations with global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. For more information, please see the Company’s website at www.macrogenics.com. MacroGenics, the MacroGenics logo, and DART are trademarks or registered trademarks of MacroGenics, Inc.
Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements
Any statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects for the Company, including statements about the Company’s strategy, future operations, clinical development of the Company’s therapeutic candidates, milestone or opt-in payments from the Company’s collaborators, the Company’s anticipated milestones and future expectations and plans and prospects for the Company and other statements containing the words “subject to”, “believe”, “anticipate”, “plan”, “expect”, “intend”, “estimate”, “project”, “may”, “will”, “should”, “would”, “could”, “can”, the negatives thereof, variations thereon and similar expressions, or by discussions of strategy constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: the uncertainties inherent in the initiation and enrollment of future clinical trials, expectations of expanding ongoing clinical trials, availability and timing of data from ongoing clinical trials, expectations for regulatory approvals, other matters that could affect the availability or commercial potential of the Company’s product candidates and other risks described in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company’s views only as of the date hereof. The Company anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause the Company’s views to change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, except as may be required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views as of any date subsequent to the date hereof.
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CONTACT: Contacts: Jim Karrels, Senior Vice President, CFO MacroGenics, Inc. 1-301-251-5172, info@macrogenics.com Karen Sharma, Senior Vice President MacDougall Biomedical Communications 1-781-235-3060, ksharma@macbiocom.com
