Incyte, a Wilmington, Delaware-based biopharmaceutical company, and Agenus, a Lexington, Massachusetts-based clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, have amended a license, development, and commercialization agreement for antibody programs that the companies originally entered into in January 2015.

The amended agreement converts two ongoing antibody programs from being co-funded development and profit-sharing arrangements to royalty-bearing programs, with Incyte now responsible for funding and conducting global development and commercialization. Should candidates from either of these two programs, the GITR and OX40 programs, be approved, Agenus would now become eligible to receive 15% royalties on global net sales of each approved product.

Two other ongoing programs, the TIM-3 and LAG-3 antibody programs, remain royalty-bearing programs at tiered rates of 6-12%, with Incyte retaining exclusive world-wide clinical development and commercial responsibilities.

In January 2015, Incyte and Agenus entered into the global license, development, and commercialization agreement to focus on immuno-therapeutics using Agenus’ proprietary Retrocyte Display antibody discovery platform, which generates fully human and humanized therapeutic antibody drug candidates. Agenus has developed a portfolio of checkpoint modulators, heat shock protein peptide-based vaccines, and adjuvants. 

Under the amended agreement, Agenus has received accelerated milestone payments of $20 million from Incyte related to the clinical development of two candidates, INCAGN1876 (anti-GITR agonist) and INCAGN1949 (anti-OX40 agonist). Across all programs in the collaboration, Agenus will now be eligible to receive up to a total of $510 million in future potential development, regulatory, and commercial milestones.

The companies have also entered into a separate stock purchase agreement whereby Incyte will purchase 10 million shares of Agenus common stock at $6 per share.

Source: Incyte