AstraZeneca and Innate Pharma ally on cancer drug development

AstraZeneca and its subsidiary MedImmune are entering into a new drug development alliance with Innate Pharma.

The collaboration aims to accelerate and broaden the development of Innate Pharma's proprietary anti-NKG2A antibody, IPH2201, including in combination with MEDI4736, an anti-PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor developed by MedImmune.

Currently in phase II development, IPH2201 will be studied both as a monotherapy and in combination with currently approved treatments across a range of cancers, addressing multiple immune pathways.

AstraZeneca will make an initial payment to Innate of $250 million (165.11 million pounds), plus a further $100 million prior to initiation of phase III development, as well as additional regulatory and sales-related milestones.

Pascal Soriot, chief executive officer of AstraZeneca, said: "We are pleased to collaborate with Innate Pharma to bring this prospective first-in-class treatment to cancer patients, further strengthening our broad immuno-oncology pipeline."

The firm previously announced an immuno-oncology partnership with Omnis Pharmaceuticals earlier this year.