Jounce Therapeutics Announces Major Strategic Collaboration with Celgene Corporation to Develop Next-generation Immuno-oncolo...
July 19 2016 - 7:00AM
Jounce to receive upfront payment of $225
million, a $36 million equity investment and up to an additional
$2.3 billion in future milestone payments across all programs
included in the collaboration
Jounce Therapeutics, Inc., a company focused on the discovery and
development of novel cancer immunotherapies and predictive
biomarkers for patient enrichment, today announced a global
strategic collaboration with Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG)
focused on developing and commercializing innovative
immuno-oncology treatments for patients with cancer. The
collaboration includes options on Jounce’s lead product candidate,
JTX-2011, targeting ICOS, and up to four early-stage programs to be
selected from a defined pool of B cell, T regulatory cell and
tumor-associated macrophage targets emerging from the Jounce
Translational Science Platform and an additional option to equally
share a checkpoint immuno-oncology program. Post option exercise,
Jounce will lead global development and U.S. commercialization for
JTX-2011 and one additional collaboration program.
“Jounce has built a unique immuno-oncology platform and pipeline
with a focus on the development of novel cancer therapies matched
to patient populations most likely to respond,” said Robert
Hershberg, M.D., Ph.D., chief scientific officer, Celgene. “This
collaboration allows both companies to leverage broad capabilities
in immuno-oncology to bring forward a new generation of product
candidates for cancer patients.”
“Celgene is the ideal partner to collaborate with Jounce to
bring potentially transformational treatments to patients with
cancer,” said Richard Murray, Ph.D., chief executive officer,
Jounce Therapeutics. “This partnership is of significant strategic
value for Jounce. With Celgene as our partner, we can broaden our
platform, advance our discovery programs and execute comprehensive
clinical strategies, all in the context of our approach to bring
the right immunotherapies to the right patient populations.”
Under the terms of the collaboration, Jounce will receive an
upfront payment of $225 million and a $36 million equity investment
from Celgene. Jounce will also receive regulatory, development, and
net sales milestone payments and tiered royalties on ex-U.S. sales.
Aggregate payments for development, regulatory and commercial
milestones could potentially be $2.3 billion in total across all
programs reaching commercialization.
Celgene has the option to opt-in at defined stages of
development across the programs. Following any opt-in, Celgene and
Jounce will share U.S. profits and losses on all programs, as
follows:
- Jounce will retain a 60 percent U.S. profit share of JTX-2011,
with 40 percent allocated to Celgene;
- Jounce will retain a 25 percent U.S. profit share on the first
additional program, with 75 percent allocated to Celgene;
- Jounce and Celgene will equally share U.S. profits on up to
three additional programs;
- After opt-in, all development costs will be shared in a manner
that is commensurate with product rights; and
- Celgene will also receive exclusive ex-U.S. commercialization
rights for each of the above programs, and Jounce is eligible to
receive a royalty on any resulting ex-U.S. sales. Celgene and
Jounce will equally share profits globally for the checkpoint
program.
About JTX-2011Jounce's lead product candidate,
JTX-2011, is a monoclonal antibody that binds to and activates
ICOS, the Inducible T cell CO-Stimulator, a protein on the surface
of certain T cells that is believed to stimulate an immune response
against a patient’s cancer. We are developing JTX-2011 to treat
solid tumors as a single agent and in combination with other
therapies. JTX-2011 is expected to enter the clinic in the second
half of 2016.
About the Jounce Translational Science
PlatformJounce’s Translational Science Platform applies an
unbiased bioinformatics-based approach to interrogate particular
cell types within the human tumor microenvironment (the cellular
environment that makes up a tumor). The platform is designed to
prioritize targets and identify related biomarkers to match the
right therapy to the right patients.
About Jounce TherapeuticsJounce Therapeutics is
an immuno-oncology company dedicated to transforming the treatment
of cancer. The company is discovering and developing novel cancer
immunotherapies designed to harness the immune system to attack
tumors and provide long-lasting benefits to patients. Jounce
integrates translational science insights, including identification
of related biomarkers designed to match the right immunotherapy to
the right patients. The company is advancing programs that leverage
contributions from its world-class founders, as well as knowledge
acquired from Jounce’s Translational Science Platform, to create a
sustainable “discovery to human proof-of-concept” product engine
with the potential to drive significantly more durable responses to
treatment. Founded by world leaders in tumor immunology, cancer
biology and clinical and translational medicine, Jounce
Therapeutics was launched in 2013 with funding from leading life
sciences investor, Third Rock Ventures. For more information,
please visit www.jouncetx.com.
Follow Jounce on social media: @JounceTx, Facebook, LinkedIn
Media Contact:
Dan Budwick
Pure Communications, Inc.
(973) 271-6085
dan@purecommunicationsinc.com
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