Treg space con­tin­ues to heat up as Ab­b­Vie puts up al­most $50M up­front to part­ner with lit­tle-known biotech

Ab­b­Vie is join­ing its fel­low Big Phar­ma com­peti­tors and jump­ing in­to the Treg space.

In a col­lab­o­ra­tion deal an­nounced ear­ly Mon­day morn­ing, the Chica­go-based phar­ma com­pa­ny said it would be team­ing up with pri­vate biotech Cu­gene to ad­vance a sin­gle Treg pro­gram tar­get­ing IL-2. Ab­b­Vie is shelling out $48.5 mil­lion up­front to col­lab­o­rate and will pay an undis­closed sum of mile­stones and roy­al­ties.

Ab­b­Vie al­so gets the op­tion to ob­tain an ex­clu­sive li­cense for cer­tain IL-2-tar­get­ing Treg pro­grams, in­clud­ing the one in­volved in Mon­day’s deal, dubbed CUG252. The can­di­date, Cu­gene’s lead, is of­fi­cial­ly de­scribed as a “Treg-se­lec­tive IL-2 mutein” de­signed to treat au­toim­mune and in­flam­ma­to­ry dis­eases.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER