BRIEF—Dragonfly expands collaboration with AbbVie

US biotech Dragonfly Therapeutics has announced an expansion of its research collaboration with AbbVie to discover and develop Dragonfly's novel immunotherapies for new targets in autoimmune and fibrotic diseases.

AbbVie successfully licensed its first TriNKET drug candidate from Dragonfly, part of a multi-target collaboration initiated in November 2019, in January 2021. Financial terms of the original deal and subsequent extensions have not been disclosed.

"AbbVie is committed to delivering transformative treatment options for patients suffering from autoimmune and fibrotic diseases," said Dr Jonathon Sedgwick, vice president and global head of discovery research at AbbVie. "We have seen strong progress in our current collaboration with Dragonfly focused on their TriNKET technology and are pleased to expand our partnership to include additional immunology targets of interest to AbbVie," he noted.

"AbbVie is a global leader in treating immune-mediated diseases, and they continue to be a terrific partner," said Bill Haney, co-founder and chief executive of Dragonfly, adding: "We look forward to building on our successful collaboration, and rapidly progressing with the AbbVie team to advance new treatment options for patients."

Under the agreement, Dragonfly will grant AbbVie the option to license exclusive worldwide intellectual property rights to multiple new candidates developed using Dragonfly's TriNKET technology platform. AbbVie will pay Dragonfly an upfront payment, future success-based milestone payments and royalties.