Astellas Pharma and Ambrx have collaborated to discover and develop new antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) for the targeted delivery of drugs into cancer tissues.
Ambrx will use site-specific conjugation technology in addition to proprietary linkers and payloads to produce optimized ADCs, which will then be developed and commercialized by Astellas.
Agensys site head and senior vice president David Stover said, "Agensys, Inc., an affiliate of Astellas which specializes in therapeutic antibody research and development in cancer, has significant experience with ADCs as oncology therapeutics and is looking to further expand its capabilities in this area."
Under the terms of the deal, Ambrx is eligible to earn $15m upfront payment besides $285m in possible research, development, regulatory and sales-based milestones and sales-based royalties from Astellas.
Further terms of the deal have not been revealed.
Ambrx chief executive officer Lawson Macartney said, "We look forward to developing these therapeutics while also advancing our broad pipeline of partnered and wholly owned therapeutic candidates with best-in-class conjugation."
