Eil Lilly is looking for new immuno-oncology drugs To pay Kumquat Biosciences spent $70 million to find them.
This sum consists of cash and equity investments, and is an advance payment for the start of a multi-year drug discovery and development partnership. If any of the drugs covered by the agreement enter the market, San Diego-based Kumquat can receive milestone payments of up to $2 billion, as well as sales royalties.
The agreement requires Kumquat to use its small molecule immuno-oncology platform to discover these drugs; Eli Lilly can select an unknown number of products for further development and potential commercialization.Kumquat website No drug pipeline is listed, nor is there any details about its method of treating cancer. In the transaction announcement, the two companies stated that Kumquat is developing first-class small molecules that can stimulate tumor-specific immune responses.
If Lilly chooses to develop any drugs resulting from Kumquat’s discovery efforts, the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant will have global rights to these compounds, except for China, where Kumquat will have development and The right to commercialize these compounds. But if any of these drugs are approved by the regulatory authorities, the two companies will have the opportunity to sell them together.Eli Lilly may choose to jointly commercialize these drugs in China; Kumquat may choose to jointly develop and jointly commercialize an unknown number of drugs in the United States
“Using small molecule inhibitors to target specific tumor antigens that are complexed with immune mechanisms provides a unique opportunity to stimulate an enhanced tumor-specific immune response,” Jacob Van Nadden, Chief Executive Officer, Loxo Oncology Division, Eli Lilly and Company Said in a prepared statement. “We look forward to working with the successful Kumquat team to identify drug candidates that interact with this target category.”
Kumquat by Yi LiuHis experience includes serving as the chief scientific officer of Wellspring Biosciences, a biotechnology company he co-founded, which continues to discover and develop small molecules to provide drugs for the difficult-to-target KRAS protein. According to the company’s website, Liu has been the CEO of Kumquat since its establishment at the end of 2018. The company has raised more than US$100 million in financing from OrbiMed, Sequoia Capital China, EcoR1, Eli Lilly Asia Ventures, and Roche Venture Capital.
Photos of Flickr users Paul Sebrman Through knowledge sharing license
