Amgen announced that it will acquire California-based Teneobio, a clinical-stage biotech developing next-gen cancer treatments using Human Heavy-Chain Antibodies, in an all-cash deal that could net out to as much as $2.5 billion.
The deal, expected to close in the second half of this year, calls for Amgen to pay $900 million upfront for all outstanding shares of TeneoBio, plus contingent milestone payments worth up to $1.6 billion more.
Amgen will acquire Teneobio's proprietary bispecific and multispecific antibody technologies, which Amgen hopes will help them to develop new drugs with the potential to treat a range of diseases across their core therapeutic areas faster and more efficiently. The deal also includes TeneoBio’s TNB-585, a prostate cancer treatment currently in phase 1 trials. If successful, the therapy will complement Amgen’s two existing prostate cancer treatments, with each offering different approaches to treat the highly prevalent disease that lacks new treatment options.
TeneoBio has been developing a new class of biologics known as human heavy-chain antibodies for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases. Last April, Gilead's Kite licensed a suite of antibodies from Teneobio that target B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA), including a phase 1 trial for multiple myeloma.
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