Igm Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: IGMS) has announced a refocusing of its exclusive worldwide collaboration agreement with Sanofi. The collaboration will now exclusively focus on immunology/inflammation targets, aligning with Sanofi's commitment to advancing therapies for patients across multiple inflammatory diseases.
Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, for each of the three Sanofi designated immunology/inflammation targets, IGM will lead research and development activities and assume related costs through the completion of a phase 1 clinical trial for up to two constructs directed to each target. After this phase, Sanofi will be responsible for all future development and commercialization activities and associated costs.
As a result of this refocusing, IGM will retain global rights to its proprietary technology related to the oncology targets nominated by Sanofi under the collaboration. The company's CEO, Fred Schwarzer, expressed satisfaction with the collaboration and the preclinical data generated in both the immunology/inflammation and the oncology portions of the collaboration.
IGM will be eligible to receive up to $1,065 million in aggregate development, regulatory, and commercial milestones per target, as well as tiered high single-digit to low-teen royalties on global net sales.
The company remains committed to developing and delivering a new class of medicines to treat patients with cancer and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. It has a pipeline of clinical and preclinical assets based on the igm antibody, which has 10 binding sites compared to conventional igg antibodies with only 2 binding sites. The market has reacted to these announcements by moving the company's shares -8.0% to a price of $8.46. For more information, read the company's full 8-K submission here.
