ImmunoGen enters second licensing deal with Amgen, worth up to $34 million; presents strong data on IMGN901

ImmunoGen has licensed the exclusive right to use its maytansinoid Targeted Antibody Payload (TAP) technology to US biotechnology major Amgen to develop anticancer therapeutics to an undisclosed target. The biotech firm also revealed encouraging data with its investigational carcinoma compound.

This is the second such license to be taken by Amgen, which acquired exclusive right to use ImmunoGen's TAP technology for another undisclosed cancer target in September 2009.

Both licenses were taken under a 2000 agreement that grants Amgen certain rights to test ImmunoGen's maytansinoid TAP technology and to license rights to use it to develop products to individual targets on agreed-upon terms. Under the license announced yesterday, ImmunoGen receives a $1 million upfront payment and is entitled to receive milestone payments potentially totaling $34 million plus royalties on the sales of any resulting products.

 'Amgen undertook extensive diligence prior to taking the first license that enabled them to move ahead quickly with this second license,' commented Daniel Junius, president and chief executive of ImmunoGen. 'The commitment Amgen is showing to the development of significant new anticancer compounds using our TAP technology is impressive ' both in the pace that they took this second license and in their thoroughness around product timelines,' he added

IMGN901 positive in Merkel cell carcinoma

Just a couple of days earlier, ImmunoGen reported encouraging clinical data with its IMGN901 product candidate in the treatment of Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). Meaningful evidence of anticancer activity has been noted among the limited number of patients with MCC who have received IMGN901, the company said. These findings were reported at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics taking place in Boston, Massachusetts, and suggest development for metastatic MCC could be a potential registration path for IMGN901.

'To date, IMGN901 has demonstrated highly encouraging activity in the treatment of Merkel cell carcinoma and has been generally well tolerated,' commented Professor Pinellas Wall of Weston Park Hospital, UK. 'These findings support the continued evaluation of this compound for the treatment of Merkel cell carcinoma as well as other types of CD56-expressing cancers,' he added.