Astellas Pharma Inc. (TSE: 4503), a Japan-based pharmaceutical company, and Kelonia Therapeutics, a US-based biotech company, announced on Thursday that Xyphos Biosciences, Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Astellas, has entered a research collaboration and license agreement with Kelonia Therapeutics to develop Immuno-Oncology therapeutics.

Under the terms of the agreement, the companies plan to combine Kelonia's iGPS with Xyphos' ACCEL technology to develop innovative in vivo CAR-T Cell therapies targeting up to two programs. Xyphos will be responsible for the development and commercialisation of products created from the collaborative research. Kelonia will receive USD40m upfront for the first program, and an additional USD35m should Xyphos exercise its options for the second program, and potential milestones and contingency payments approaching USD800m in total. Additionally, Kelonia will receive R&D funding for work performed in the collaboration and is eligible for tiered royalties on net sales up to the double-digit percentage.

Kevin Friedman, PhD, Kelonia CEO and founder, said, 'Our iGPS platform has the potential to be a step change in the treatment of cancer. Combining Kelonia's in vivo gene delivery capabilities with the ACCEL(TM) convertible CAR technology is an ideal marriage of technologies to create off-the-shelf, universal CAR-T Cell therapies. We see revolutionary promise in this approach, and will work diligently with our partners at Astellas to unlock its full potential for patients that need it most.'

.

(C) 2024 M2 COMMUNICATIONS, source M2 PressWIRE