Amgen and Advaxis announce cancer immunotherapy collaboration

Amgen has partnered with Advaxis to develop a new immunotherapy for the treatment for cancer.

The global agreement will see the companies work together on the development and commercialisation of Advaxis' ADXS-NEO, a novel preclinical treatment designed to activate the immune system to respond against unique mutations contained individual tumour types.

Amgen's development expertise in immuno-oncology will be leveraged alongside Advaxis' MINE (My Immunotherapy Neo-Epitopes) programme, which is designed to provide a customised approach to cancer treatment.

Under the terms of the deal,Amgen will receive exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialise ADXS-NEO, and will make an upfront payment to Advaxis of $40 million (30.01 million pounds). It will also purchase $25 million of Advaxis common stock and may need to pay out up to $475 million in development, regulatory and sales milestone payments.

Dr Sean Harper, executive vice-president of research and development at Amgen, said: "Amgen's collaboration with Advaxis leverages and enhances our development and commercialisation expertise in novel immuno-oncology treatments."