ASH18: J&J shells out $500M to sew up Argenyx's blood cancer hopeful cusatuzumab

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.