Amgen and Kite Pharma entered into a strategic research collaboration and license agreement to develop and commercialize novel Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cell immunotherapies based on Kite’s engineered autologous cell therapy platform and Amgen’s array of cancer targets.
Kite will be responsible for conducting all preclinical research and cell manufacturing and processing through Investigational New Drug 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 were not disclosed.
