Moderna and CytomX to partner in deal worth up to 1.2bn

Moderna and cancer-focused drug developer CytomX Therapeutics (CytomX) have announced a collaboration and licensing agreement to create investigational mRNA-based conditionally-activated therapies for a wide range of diseases.

The partners will utilise both CytomX’s Probody therapeutic platform, used in the development of cancer therapies targeting diseased tissues, and Moderna’s mRNA technologies.

Under the terms of the agreement, CytomX will receive an upfront payment of $35m from Moderna and will be eligible to receive up to $1.2bn in future development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments, as well as tiered global net sales royalties.

Moderna’s senior vice president for research and early development, Rose Loughlin, said: "We are excited to enter this collaboration with CytomX to combine our technologies and to potentially bring mRNA-based conditionally activated therapies to patients.

"Moderna and CytomX have a shared vision of investing at the intersection of biology and technology to transform the lives of patients, and this collaboration will expand applications of our growing therapeutics pipeline.”

Both companies will work on discovery and preclinical development, with Moderna responsible for human trials and commercial activities of therapeutics resulting from the agreement.

The biotech will also have the option to participate in a future equity financing by CytomX, subject to certain terms, conditions and regulatory requirements.

Sean McCarthy, chief executive officer and chairman of CytomX, said: "At CytomX, we have always embraced bold science in building the potential of Probody therapeutics and we are thrilled to be joining forces with Moderna in oncology as well as expanding our technology to areas outside oncology where we believe there is great potential.

"Moderna's global impact has shown the enormous power of mRNA and we look forward to working closely with our newest collaborator to bring novel, mRNA-based conditionally activated therapeutics to patients with unmet medical needs.”

CytomX's pipeline currently comprises seven therapeutic candidates across multiple treatment modalities including antibody-drug conjugates, T-cell engaging bispecific antibodies and immune modulators such as cytokines and checkpoint inhibitors.

In November 2022, the company announced a collaboration and licensing agreement with Regeneron to create conditionally-activated investigational bispecific cancer therapies.

The partnership will also utilise the company’s Probody platform, along with Regeneron’s Veloci-Bi antibody development platform, and sees CytomX receive an upfront payment of $30m, as well as future target nomination payments and milestones of up to $2bn.