Jazz Pharmaceuticals and AbCellera Partner on Cancer Antibody Discovery
Jazz Pharmaceuticals and AbCellera have entered a collaboration to discover and develop next-generation T-cell engaging multispecific antibodies. The deal includes a $56 million upfront payment to AbCellera and potential future payments.
Jazz Pharmaceuticals and AbCellera announced a preclinical research collaboration, option, and license agreement to discover and develop next-generation T-cell engaging (TCE) multispecific antibodies. The partnership will utilize AbCellera's antibody discovery platform to generate optimized development candidates targeting multiple gastrointestinal (GI) cancers and other solid tumors.
The agreement includes an upfront payment of $56 million to AbCellera, with potential additional option fees and milestone payments totaling up to $792 million for programs Jazz chooses to advance. Jazz Pharmaceuticals secures exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the resulting therapeutic antibodies.
"This research collaboration with AbCellera directly aligns with Jazz’s rare disease strategy, expanding our focus into GI cancers and building on our existing oncology expertise," stated Josh Allen, Ph.D., chief scientific officer, oncology, at Jazz Pharmaceuticals. He added that the company looks forward to progressing potential TCE multispecific antibodies into clinical development and delivering meaningful innovation for patients.
AbCellera's T-cell engager platform is a fully integrated capability designed for the discovery and clinical manufacturing of multispecific TCEs for difficult-to-treat cancers. The platform incorporates proprietary CD3-binding antibodies and costimulatory targeting arms.