With can­cer in fo­cus, Am­gen taps Mol­e­c­u­lar Part­ner­s' pre­clin­i­cal im­mune-on­col­o­gy as­set for $50M up­front

Am­gen $AMGN is vy­ing for a big­ger BiTE in can­cer, with a pact worth up to $547 mil­lion with Mol­e­c­u­lar Part­ners for the biotech’s pre­clin­i­cal im­muno-on­col­o­gy drug MP0310.

The mol­e­cule is de­signed to lo­cal­ly ac­ti­vate im­mune cells in the tu­mor by bind­ing to fi­brob­last ac­ti­va­tion pro­tein (FAP) on tu­mor stro­mal cells, while si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly stim­u­lat­ing T cells. It’s part of Mol­e­c­u­lar’s DARPin plat­form tech, which the com­pa­ny says it de­vel­oped to cre­ate a new class of small pro­tein ther­a­peu­tic agents de­rived from nat­ur­al ankyrin re­peat pro­teins – one of the most com­mon bind­ing pro­teins re­spon­si­ble for cell sig­nal­ing and re­cep­tor bind­ing.

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