Amgen and EVOQ Therapeutics Announce $240 Million Collaboration to Develop Dendritic Cell-Based Therapies for Autoimmune Diseases

Compiled by Hemingway

Recently, Amgen announced a collaboration with Michigan-based EVOQ Therapeutics to jointly develop drugs for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

Under the terms of the agreement, Amgen and EVOQ will collaborate on preclinical development, with Amgen responsible for clinical development and commercialization. In exchange for exclusive rights to certain autoimmune programs, Amgen will pay upfront and milestone payments potentially totaling more than $240 million, plus sales-based royalties on resulting products.

EVOQ Therapeutics specializes in therapies for autoimmune diseases, although its initial development was aimed at cancer treatment. The company was co-founded in 2016 by scientists from the University of Michigan, leveraging its NanoDisc technology platform—a high-density lipoprotein (HDL) platform designed to deliver peptides directly to the lymph nodes.

Amgen’s collaboration with EVOQ will leverage dendritic cells to develop therapies for inducing immune tolerance. EVOQ’s pipeline includes two compounds targeting MOG antibody disease, a newly recognized condition characterized by neurospinal inflammation that is often misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis (MS) or type 1 diabetes.

Amgen’s portfolio in the field of autoimmune disease treatment includes innovative medicines (including Otezla® and Enbrel®) as well as biosimilars, such as AMGEVITA® (a biosimilar to Humira®) and AVSOLA® (a biosimilar to Remicade®). One of the key products in its autoimmune portfolio, Otezla (apremilast), was acquired by Amgen from Celgene in November 2019 for $13.4 billion in cash. Otezla is approved in the United States for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. The drug has been approved in more than 50 regions outside the United States and enjoys patent protection in the U.S. through at least 2028. In 2018, Otezla generated sales of $1.6 billion.

Initially, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) acquired Celgene; however, due to the ongoing development of deucravacitinib (BMS-986165), a competing product to Otezla, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) required the divestiture of Otezla. In November 2020, deucravacitinib surpassed Otezla in a key secondary endpoint of the POETYK PSO-1 Phase III clinical trial. Additionally, the drug met its co-primary endpoints in the treatment of psoriasis.

Reference Source: Amgen Inks $240 Million Autoimmune Deal with Tiny EVOQ Therapeutics