CytomX, AbbVie in Strategic Probody Drug Pact

AbbVie and CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. have entered into a collaboration to co-develop and commercialize Probody Drug Conjugates against CD71, which is highly expressed in a number of solid and hematologic cancers and has molecular properties for efficient delivery of cytotoxic payloads to tumor cells.
 
Probody therapeutics are designed enhance the tumor-targeting features of an antibody and reduce drug activity in healthy tissues. CytomX has generated preclinical data that demonstrates that Probody drug conjugates can safely and effectively target tumor antigens, such as CD71, that are not addressable by conventional antibody-drug conjugates.
 
CytomX will lead preclinical and early clinical development and AbbVie will lead later development and commercialization. The companies will share global late-stage development costs. CytomX will receive an upfront payment of $30 million and is eligible to receive as much as $470 million in development, regulatory and commercial milestones. AbbVie will lead global commercial activities and CytomX is eligible to receive a profit share in the U.S. and royalties on sales outside of the U.S. 
 
AbbVie also receives exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize Probody drug conjugates against as many as two additional, undisclosed targets and CytomX would be eligible to receive additional milestone and royalty payments.
 
“We believe that the Probody platform provides a differentiated opportunity to combine with our strength in antibody drug conjugates,” said Steve Davidsen, Ph.D., vice president, oncology drug discovery, AbbVie. “We are encouraged by the promising preclinical data that CytomX has generated for their Probody drug conjugate programs to-date and look forward to working closely with their team. This collaboration will enable us to expand our innovative pipeline in antibody drug conjugates and leverage our strength in that area to previously unexplored targets.”
 
“This collaboration is another important step toward achieving CytomX’s vision of transforming lives with safer, more effective therapies and allows us to further advance our broad pipeline of Probody therapeutics,” stated Sean McCarthy, D.Phil., president and chief executive officer at CytomX. “AbbVie has demonstrated leadership in developing antibody drug conjugates and we look forward to collaborating with their team to realize the full potential of our CD71 Probody drug conjugate program and additional oncology targets.”