Firm will also make a $10 million investment and pay up to $176.5 million in milestones.
Facet Biotech is paying Trubion Pharmaceuticals $20 million up front to work together on the latter’s cancer drug candidate called TRU-016. Trubion may also receive up to $176.5 million related to the achievement of certain development, regulatory and sales milestones. Additionally, Facet will purchase 2,243,649 shares of newly issued Trubion common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $10 million.
TRU-016, a CD37-directed Small Modular ImmunoPharmaceutical (SMIP™) protein therapeutic, is in Phase I trials for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The joint worldwide development and commercialization deal covers all applicable indications for the compound. The companies will equally share the costs of development, commercialization, and promotional activities as well as all global operating profits.
“TRU-016 is a promising therapeutic with impressive preclinical and preliminary clinical data for CLL that will greatly enhance our pipeline and support a key strategic objective, which is to build a robust oncology portfolio,” comments Faheem Hasnain, president and CEO of Facet Biotech. “After a thorough evaluation of a number of programs over the past several months, we concluded that TRU-016 was a particularly compelling program and a great fit with our pipeline and expertise.
“While the novel approach to protein therapeutics is supported by a solid biological rationale and validated clinical data in CLL, TRU-016 may have broad utility in additional indications including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple sclerosis.”
