Amgen takes over multi-specific antibodies through up to $2.5 billion takeout of Teneobio

The company was the first to take a bispecific T cell engager (BiTE) over the finish line with FDA’s approval of Blincyto blinatumomab in 2014. antibody-drug conjugates and fusion proteins. The TeneoBio takeout gives Amgen a “heavy-chain only” platform dubbed UniAb, a T cell engager platform and a CD3 engager technology that complements Amgen’s existing suite of multispecific tools. Amgen will also gain TNB-585, a BiTE against PSMA and CD3 in Phase 1 development for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, and several preclinical programs.

TeneoBio plans to spin out three of its pipeline programs into separate entities ahead of the acquisition. CD19 x CD3 bispecific TNB-486, which is in Phase 1 testing for B cell cancers, will become an asset owned by TeneoTwo. Two preclinical programs - an anti-CD38 enzyme inhibitor for metabolic disorders and a bispecific for HBV - will become TeneoFour and TeneoTen respectively. The deal is slated to close by year-end.

Immpact Bio and Kalithera merge to advance to next-generation CAR-Ts

ImmPACT Bio USA and Kalthera merged to advance a combined portfolio of next-generation CAR-T therapies. The deal adds clinical programs to ImmPACT’s pipeline including a Phase 2 bispecific CAR T therapy targeting CD19 and CD20. To support manufacturing for its clinical programs, ImmPACT will move into a new facility in the Los Angeles biotech hub early next year.

PARTNERING

AstraZeneca in-licenses STING inhibitors from F-Star in a $300 million deal

Astrazeneca gets the global rights to research, develop and commercialize protein stimulator of interferon genes, STING inhibitor compounds, from F-star Therapeutics. Astrazeneca is responsible for currently preclinical STING inhibitor compounds from F-star, which retains rights to all its STING agonists in clinical development for treating cancer.

Astrazeneca has not named the indications it intends to target but said it plans to develop therapies across “immune-mediated diseases.” F-star is eligible for up to $12 million in up-front and near-term payments as well as for development and sales milestone payments of more than $300 million, plus single digit percentage royalty payments. F-star’s STING assets came from a reverse merger conducted with Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals that began in July 2020.

BioNTech acquires neoantigen TCR therapy platform from Kite

BioNTech and Kite, a Gilead Company announced the two companies have entered into a purchase agreement for BioNTech to acquire Kite’s solid tumor neoantigen TCR R&D platform and clinical manufacturing facility in Gaithersburg, MD. The acquired Gaithersburg facility will provide production capacity to support clinical trials in the US and will complement BioNTech’s existing cell therapy manufacturing facility in Idar-Oberstein, Germany.

The facility will support the development of BioNTech’s expanding pipeline of novel cell therapies, including cancer product candidates based on its CAR-T Cell amplifying mRNA vaccine (CARVac) and NEOSTIM platforms as well as the newly acquired individualized neoantigen TCR program. Kite will receive a one-time upfront payment from BioNTech to purchase Kite’s individualized solid tumor neoantigen TCR discovery platform as well as the Gaithersburg R&D and clinical manufacturing facility. Financial terms were not disclosed.