Amgen and Kite Pharma announce new cancer collaboration

Amgen has agreed a new partnership with Kite Pharma that will focus on an innovative new approach to treating cancer.

The cancer immunotherapy collaboration will see the companies work to develop and commercialise novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapies, based on Kite's engineered autologous cell therapy platform and Amgen's range of cancer targets.

Kite will receive a $60 million (39.66 million pounds) upfront payment from Amgen, and will be eligible for up to $525 million in regulatory and sales-related milestone fees per Amgen programme, plus royalties for future product sales.

Amgen is also eligible to receive up to $525 million in milestone payments per Kite programme, in addition to tiered single-digit sales royalties.

Dr Sean Harper, executive vice-president of research and development at Amgen, said: "The intersection of immunology and oncology represents one of the most promising approaches to delivering significant impact for patients with cancer."

Last month, the company partnered with LabCentral on a scheme to support innovative life science and biotechnology start-ups in Cambridge, Massachusetts.