Amgen has linked up with Bind Biosciences to develop a kinase inhibitor nanomedicine for treating a range of solid tumours.
The deal gives the US biotech major access to the technology at Bind, which has developed “a new class of highly selective targeted and programmable therapeutics”, which it calls Accurins. The partners are looking to develop a novel Accurin, “applying for the first time tissue targeting to molecularly targeted drugs”.
Cashwise, BIND could receive upfront and development fees of $46.5 million, and up to an additional $134 million in regulatory and sales milestone payments for the first therapeutic indication. The Massachusetts-based company is also eligible for tiered royalties.
Bind chief executive Scott Minick said that Amgen “has recognised the unique potential” of his firm’s nanoengineering platform “to create programmable oncology therapeutics that combine molecular and tissue targeting for unsurpassed selectivity and activity”. The company’s lead product candidate, BIND-014, is an Accurin that contains the chemotherapy docetaxel.
