Thursday, November 15, 2018
Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Celgene Corporation and its subsidiaries ("Celgene") to research Development and commercialization of innovative immunotherapies for patients with solid and hematological cancers The new agreement builds on Celgene's existing four-goal collaboration with Dragonfly, which was agreed in 2017, to increase the number of drug candidates in TriNKET ™ Immunotherapy for licensing by Celgene to a total of eight.
The new four-goal agreement provides Celgene the opportunity to license exclusive, worldwide intellectual property rights to products developed using Dragonfly's TriNKET ™ technology platform, which opened four new types of treatment for solid and neonatal tumors. In return, an upfront payment of $ 50 million, potential future milestone payments, potential license fee payments and other material consideration were agreed.
"We have seen the remarkable development in NK cell biology and immunotherapy since we started working with Dragonfly and look forward to expanding our access to the new therapeutic candidates," said Rupert Vessey, FRCP DPhil, president of research and early development at Celgene Corporation. "Based on evidence to date, we believe that the new TriNKET technology will provide a unique platform to support the research and development of drug candidates for immunotherapy, with the potential to provide cancer patients with both monotherapy and in combination with existing therapeutics help."
"Celgene's partnership strategy is based on our ability to develop effective collaborations with innovative companies," said Robert Hershberg , MD, PhD, Head of Business Development and Global Alliances at Celgene. "The expansion of our collaboration with Dragonfly reinforces our external success strategic cooperation model, and I am pleased to be part of the team that has taken us into the next phase of our partnership with Dragonfly. "
"Celgene is a leader in innovative immunotherapy and we look forward to doubling the number of collaborative goals and partnering with solid tumor treatments," said Dragonfly CEO Bill Haney . "The Celgene team has been in business for the past 18 months great cooperation partner and we look forward to continuing our efforts to potentially enable cancer patients to receive new treatment options from immuno-oncology. "
About Dragonfly Dragonfly Therapeutics is committed to researching, developing and marketing therapies that utilize their novel TriNKET ™ technology and utilize the body's innate immune system to provide patients with breakthrough cancer treatments.
