Aduro Biotech announced a collaboration with Novartis for the research, development and commercialization of novel immuno-oncology products derived from Aduro’s cyclic dinucleotide (CDN) approach to target the STING (Stimulator of Interferon Genes) receptor, that, when activated, is known to initiate broad innate and adaptive tumor-specific immune responses.
Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis will make an upfront payment of $200 million to Aduro and, if all development milestones are met, Aduro is eligible to receive up to an additional aggregate amount of $500 million. In addition, Novartis has made an initial 2.7 percent equity investment in Aduro for $25 million, with a commitment for another $25 million investment at a future date, according to a press release.
Aduro will lead commercialization activities and will book sales in the United States for any products developed and commercialized pursuant to this collaboration, with Novartis leading commercialization activities in all other regions. The companies will share in profits, if any, in the United States, Japan and major European countries. Novartis will pay Aduro a mid-teens royalty for sales in the rest of the world, the release said.
Novartis’ Mark C. Fishman, M.D., president of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, commented, “We are delighted to collaborate with Aduro. We believe this target is among the most exciting in oncology today, the drug candidate to be of the highest quality, and the talent of our new colleagues from Aduro to be fantastic. We anticipate many clinical opportunities will be explored with the CDN approach, both directly and in combination with other agents.”
Thomas W. Dubensky, Jr., Ph.D., chief scientific officer for Aduro added, “This is a tremendous validation of our CDN technology and the preclinical data that we’ve generated in the program thus far. We look forward to collaborating with Novartis to begin a Phase 1 clinical trial with our first novel immuno-oncology candidate.”
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