Deal will advance precision immuno-oncology candidates from Marengo’s STAR platform
A strategic partnership has been announced between Ipsen and Marengo Therapeutics to advance two of Marengo’s preclinical candidates.
Marengo’s Selective T-Cell Activation Repertoire (STAR) platform is a multi-specific fusion protein library that targets specific TCR Vβ variants.
The collaboration will leverage Marengo’s proprietary research and development expertise of a novel mechanism of T-cell activation with Ipsen’s global oncology footprint for clinical development and commercialisation.
Under the terms of the agreement, Ipsen will make an upfront payment of $45m, together with potential payments totalling $1.592bn. These financial aspects are triggered if all milestones are met in addition to tiered sales royalty payments.
Marengo will lead the preclinical development efforts while Ipsen will assume responsibilities for clinical development and commercialisation.
Collectively, the Ipsen and Marengo teams have an established track record of oncology-medicine development and realising the potential of candidates across a large range of cancer indications.
“Marengo’s foundational discovery of activation of T-cell subsets via TCR Vβ is unprecedented and highly differentiated from the current immuno-oncology technologies we have seen,” explained Howard Mayer, executive vice president and head of R&D at Ipsen.
“This partnership with Marengo provides a strong foundation for a productive and successful collaboration as we embark on a journey to develop novel and durable therapies that will strengthen our oncology pipeline and further enhance our commitment to people living with cancer,” he added.
“Our strategic partnership with Ipsen underscores our shared ambition to develop transformative medicines for people fighting cancer,” concluded Zhen Su, chief executive officer of Marengo Therapeutics. “Marengo brings a precision medicine approach to the field of Immuno-oncology with a focus on T-cell activation and this collaboration is an important validation of our STAR platform beyond our lead candidate. Together this partnership is a demonstration of the strong progress and promise of our innovative scientific platform.”
