AbbVie and Immunome agree on multi-year oncology collaboration

AbbVie and Immunome have announced a worldwide multi-year collaboration and option agreement to discover multiple oncology targets using Immunome's discovery engine.

Under the terms of the agreement, AbbVie has the option to purchase worldwide rights for up to ten new antibody-target pairs arising from three specified tumour types.

In exchange, Immunome will receive an upfront payment of $30m and will be eligible to receive platform access payments of up to $70m if AbbVie choses to continue using its discovery engine.

The US-based biotech will also be eligible to receive up to $120m per target in development and first commercial sale milestones with respect to certain products derived from target-antibody pairs that AbbVie decides to purchase, with the potential for further sales milestone payments per target as well as royalties.

Immunome’s proprietary discovery engine identifies novel therapeutic antibodies and their targets by using the information stored in memory B cells from patients whose immune systems are able to fight off their disease.

Memory B cells are key elements in the human immune system response as they produce specific, high-affinity antibodies that bind directly to cancer antigens or pathogens.

"Immunome's approach has the potential to unlock novel cancer biology and yield multiple therapeutic candidates,” said Steve Davidsen, vice president, oncology discovery research at AbbVie. “We look forward to utilising their discovery engine to enhance our existing oncology pipeline."

Purnanand Sarma, president and chief executive officer of Immunome, added: "AbbVie shares our vision of harnessing the power of the human immune response to yield novel and first-in-class therapeutics that represent a shift in the cancer discovery paradigm.

“We are delighted to be working with AbbVie and look forward to leveraging their vast development and commercialisation expertise in bringing new therapies to patients suffering from life-threatening cancers.”

Immunome, which focuses mainly on oncology and infectious disease, announced in June 2022 that its ‘COVID-19 cocktail’ retained activity against the BA.4/5 and BA.2.12.1 Omicron subvariants.

The candidate, which is currently in phase 1b clinical development, is a combination of three antibodies that each have a different mechanism of action.

The candidate was placed on clinical hold by the US Food and Drug Administration in January 2022 due to a request for further information on its preparation and administration at clinical sites. The hold was lifted two months later after the company provided a 'comprehensive report' detailing the necessary information.