Celgene exercises option to move forward with Juno collaboration

Celgene will be taking forward its collaboration with Juno Therapeutics after exercising an option to continue with the development of a promising new group of therapies.

Juno will receive a fee of $50 million (35.16 million pounds) from Celgene after the latter exercised its option to develop and commercialise the Juno CD19 programme outside North America and China.

There are currently three CD19-directed product candidates in clinical development, including JCAR015, JCAR017 and JCAR014, which are being developed for the treatment of conditions such as acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

The companies will now share global development expenses for these products, with Celgene receiving commercial rights outside of North America and China in exchange for a share of the royalties.

Dr Robert Hershberg, chief scientific officer for Celgene, said: "Our decision to move forward with the Juno CD19 programme underscores our commitment to the long-term collaboration with Juno and our strong desire to deliver important new treatment options to patients with serious haematologic malignancies."

Juno's partnership with Celgene comes as part of its wider efforts to develop its engineered T-cell platform.