Michael Yu, chairman and chief executive officer of Innovent Biologics, said the deal with Roche will help the company continue to move forward in the cellular therapy space.
Swiss pharma giant Roche and Innovent Biologics announced a strategic research and development collaboration to discover and develop bispecific antibodies and multiple cell therapies for the treatment of hematological and solid cancers.
Few specifics related to the deal were announced this morning. According to the terms of the collaboration agreement that were disclosed, China-based Innovent will pay Roche an undisclosed upfront fee for access to certain Roche technologies that enable the discovery and development of specific 2:1 T-cell bispecific antibodies (TCB) and the universal CAR-T platform. If all regulatory and commercial milestones are hit, Roche could receive more than $2 billion from the deal.
Michael Yu, chairman and chief executive officer of Innovent Biologics, said the deal with Roche will help the company continue to move forward in the cellular therapy space.
“… with this partnership with Roche we are taking a much bolder step forward as we build upon Roche’s novel, universal CAR-T cell technology to enhance our cellular therapy discovery platform, and on Roche’s 2:1 T-cell bispecific antibody platform for selected targets to discover, develop, and commercialize new proprietary bispecific molecules,” Yu said in a statement.
Yu added that under terms of the agreement, Roche will retain licensing options outside of China in order to benefit patients around the globe.
The deal with Roche was announced about a week after Innovent disclosed positive preliminary results from a Phase Ib study in hepatocellular carcinoma. The company presented data from the early study of TYVYT (sintilimab injection) in combination with IBI305, a bevacizumab biosimilar independently developed by Innovent, in the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma during the American Society of Clinical Oncology virtual meeting. Hepatocellular carcinoma is a common malignant tumor in China, but there is a long-term lack of effective treatment for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma in that country, Innovent noted. The Phase Ib study preliminarily showed positive efficacy and good safety in patients with advanced liver cancer.
Earlier this year, Innovent licensed its own biosimilar candidate to Avastin (bevacizumab) to Coherus BioSciences, Inc. The biosimilar candidate, IBI305, completed a Phase III study in China and was granted Priority Review by that country’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA). California-based Coherus will file a Biologics License Application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in late 2020 or early 2021 depending on the regulatory agency’s interaction timing.
