Amgen Enters Pharma Acquisition Deal to Develop New Biologics
The pharma acquisition deal aims to innovate medicines and new biologics to treat patients with serious illness and bring to market products across core therapeutic areas.
Amgen recently entered into a pharmaceutical acquisition deal with Teneobio to discover and develop new biologics to treat various diseases across Amgen’s therapeutic areas.
Teneobio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing bispecific and multi-specific antibody technology. Specifically, the company is introducing Human Heavy-Chain Antibodies, a new class of biologics for chronic diseases.
These platforms, including Teneobio’s heavy-chain only platform, complement Amgen's existing antibody capabilities and allow for a streamlined, sequence-based discovery approach to target binders.
Additionally, Teneobio’s T-cell engager platform expands on Amgen’s bispecific T-cell engagers by providing a differentiated approach to the company’s current BiTE platform.
"The acquisition of Teneobio will strengthen our ability to develop innovative medicines to treat patients with serious illnesses and to bring to market best-in-class products, particularly with respect to multispecific and bispecific medicines directed against targets in a wide range of diseases across our core therapeutic areas," David M. Reese, MD, executive vice president of research and development at Amgen, said in the announcement.
“The availability of Teneobio's CD3 engager technology will allow us to broaden our capabilities and enable customization of the T cell engaging domain of the molecules, depending on the disease and target,” Reese continued.
Amgen’s acquisition of Teneobio also includes TNB-585, a Phase 1 bispecific T-cell engager to treat metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), as well as preclinical oncology pipeline assets with the potential for near-term IND filings.
TNB-585 complements Amgen’s profile of prostate cancer, including acapatamab and AMG 509, which are both currently in Phase 1 clinical trials.
Under terms of agreement, Amgen will acquire all outstanding shares of Teneobio at closing in exchange for a $900 million upfront cash payment, as well as future milestone payments worth up to an additional $1.6 billion in cash.
Prior to the close of Amgen’s acquisition, three Teneobio affiliates will be spun-off to Teneobio’s equity holders, an Amgen spokesperson explained.
"The Teneobio team is enthusiastic about joining forces with Amgen. R&D resources and its extensive clinical experience in immuno-oncology are ideally suited to applying and advancing Teneobio's differentiated technologies and multispecific antibodies to deliver transformative medicines," said Roland Buelow, PhD, chief executive officer of Teneobio.
In June, AbbVie exercised its right to acquire TeneoOne, an affiliate of Teneobio, as well as TNB-383B, an anti-CD3 BCMA bispecific to treat relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.
AbbVie based its decision on results from the ongoing Phase 1 study, which demonstrated an objective response rate of 79 percent, very good partial response or better of 63 percent, and complete response of 29 percent.
