ASH18: J&J shells out $500M to sew up Argenyx's blood cancer hopeful cusatuzumab
Questex LLC | December 03, 2018
As the biggest and brightest in the blood cancer world came together for the ASH conference this weekend, European biotech Argenx was busy making a big biobucks deal. It has teamed up with Cilag, a subsidiary of Janssen, to work on the company’s cusatuzumab. The team is testing the candidate, an anti-CD70 SIMPLE antibody, across a range of blood cancers and disorders, including AML, myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and other hematological malignancies.
The deal is worth a respectable $300 million upfront, with a $200 million equity investment from Janssen funneled into the Belgium-Dutch biotech; but this could swell to $1.6 billion in biobucks, with the standard caveat that this would require all parts of the deal going perfectly. Under the pact, Argenx can hold on to the right to co-promote cusatuzumab in the U.S., as well as “share economics 50-50 on a royalty basis,” with Janssen responsible for sales worldwide.
The drug is already in a phase 1/2 combo test with Celgene blood cancer drug Vidaza for newly diagnosed, elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and high-risk MDS who are unfit for chemotherapy.