Amgen, Kite Pharma Announce Strategic Cancer Immunotherapy Collaboration

(RTTNews) - Amgen (AMGN) and Kite Pharma (KITE) announced that they have reached a strategic research collaboration and license agreement to develop and commercialize the next generation of novel Chimeric Antigen Receptor or CAR T cell immunotherapies based on Kite's engineered autologous cell therapy or eACT platform and Amgen's extensive array of cancer targets.

The collaboration brings together Amgen's commitment to and capabilities in advancing new approaches in immuno-oncology and Kite's industry-leading presence in CAR T cell therapy.

As per the terms of the agreement, Amgen will contribute cancer targets, and Kite will leverage its proprietary CAR platform, research and development (R&D) and manufacturing capabilities, and expertise. Kite will be responsible for conducting all preclinical research and cell manufacturing and processing through Investigational New Drug (IND) filing.

Each company will then be responsible for clinical development and commercialization of their respective CAR therapeutic candidates, including all related expenses.

Kite will receive from Amgen an upfront payment of $60 million, as well as funding for R&D costs through IND filing. Kite will be eligible to receive up to $525 million in milestone payments per Amgen program based on the successful completion of regulatory and commercialization milestones, plus tiered high single- to double-digit royalties for sales and the license of Kite's intellectual property for CAR T cell products.

Amgen is eligible to receive up to $525 million in milestone payments per Kite program, plus tiered single-digit sales royalties. Further terms of the agreement are not being disclosed.