XOMA rockets as it out-licenses gevokizumab and other assets

Shares of US biotech firm XOMA Corp (Nasdaq: XOMA) closed up 24.3% at $11.10 on Friday, after the company revealed an agreement to out-license an investigational product to Swiss pharma giant Novartis (NOVN: VX).

XOMA announced it has licensed the global commercial rights to gevokizumab, a novel anti-interleukin (IL)-1 beta allosteric monoclonal antibody, to Novartis. The MAb has the potential to treat patients with a wide variety of inflammatory and other diseases. However, in 2015, gevokizumab failed a Phase III clinical trial for Behcet’s disease uveitis, a debilitating ophthalmic inflammatory condition that often leads to vision-threatening complications including blindness.

In a separate agreement, XOMA has granted Novartis a license to its intellectual property covering the use of IL-1 beta targeting antibodies in the treatment of cardiovascular disease.