Aduro Biotech Receives Milestone Payment From Janssen

Aduro Biotech Inc. has received a milestone payment from Janssen Biotech Inc. for Aduro’s submission of an investigational new drug (IND) application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for ADU-214, a LADD immunotherapy in development for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. The IND will enable Janssen, Aduro’s license partner for ADU-214, to initiate a multi-center Phase 1 trial to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of intravenous administration of ADU-214.

“We are pleased to support Janssen in their advancement of ADU-214 into clinical trials in non-small cell lung cancer,” said Stephen Isaacs, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Aduro. “We believe there is tremendous potential with our LADD immunotherapy platform and our partnerships, like this one with Janssen, supplement our own efforts and provide additional resources to evaluate the clinical value of our technology in multiple tumor types.”

Janssen expects to initiate a Phase 1 trial by the end of 2015 to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of intravenous administration of ADU-214 in patients with non-small lung cancer.

In October 2014, Aduro entered into its second agreement with Janssen Biotech, granting an exclusive, worldwide license to ADU-214 and other product candidates engineered for the treatment of lung cancer and certain other cancers based on its novel LADD immunotherapy platform. Under the agreement facilitated by the Johnson & Johnson Innovation center in California, Aduro received a $30 million up-front payment and a milestone payment associated with submission of the IND, and is eligible to receive future development, regulatory and commercialization milestone payments up to a potential total of $786.5 million. In addition, Aduro is eligible to receive royalties at a rate ranging from high single-digits to low teens on worldwide net sales upon successful launch and commercialization.