Exelixis partners on cancer drug development

Exelixis (Nasdaq: EXEL) has teamed up with fellow US biotech firm Invenra for the development of next-generation biologics, to discover and develop multispecific antibodies for the treatment of cancer.

The partnership pairs Exelixis’ fundamental biological insights, clinical development prowess and commercialization expertise with Invenra’s innovative platform technologies and biologics expertise to identify, optimize, and manufacture multispecific therapeutics, including immunotherapy applications. The collaboration is part of Exelixis’ ongoing strategy to build an innovative pipeline beyond its two internally discovered, commercially available compounds, cabozantinib and cobimetinib. The agreement with Invenra creates a biologics discovery capability that complements Exelixis’ in-house small molecule drug discovery efforts.

Under the collaboration agreement, Exelixis will receive an exclusive, worldwide license to one preclinical asset, and Exelixis and Invenra intend to pursue up to six additional discovery projects during the term of the collaboration, which in total are directed to three discovery programs.