Amgen and Kite Pharma collaborate on CAR T cell therapies

5 January 2015

Shares of Kite Pharma (Nasdaq: KITE) gained 4.1% to $63.17 in early trading today, after the company announced a strategic research collaboration and license agreement with US biotech giant Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN) to develop and commercialize the next generation of novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapies based on Kite's engineered autologous cell therapy (eACT) platform and Amgen's extensive array of cancer targets.

Under the terms of the agreement, Amgen will contribute cancer targets, and Kite will leverage its proprietary CAR platform, R&D and manufacturing capabilities, and expertise. Kite will be responsible for conducting all preclinical research and cell manufacturing and processing through Investigational New Drug (IND) filing. Each company will then be responsible for clinical development and commercialization of their respective CAR therapeutic candidates, including all related expenses.

$60 million upfront for Kite, plus up to $525 million in milestones for each company

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