Innate Pharma deal with AstraZeneca gains HSR clearance

French biotech company Innate Pharma (Euronext Paris: IPH) says that the co-development and commercialization agreement with AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) on Innate’s proprietary anti-NKG2A antibody, IPH2201 (The Pharma Letter April 24), has received Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) antitrust clearance in the USA.

The companies will now begin to work together to accelerate and broaden the development of IPH2201, including in combination with MEDI4736, an anti-PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor developed by MedImmune, AstraZeneca’s US biologics R&D unit.

On June 30, 2015, Innate Pharma received the initial payment of $250 million from AstraZeneca under the terms of their collaboration. AstraZeneca will pay a further $100 million prior to initiation of Phase III development, as well as additional regulatory and sales-related milestones. AstraZeneca will book all sales and will pay Innate double-digit royalties on net sales. The arrangement includes the right for Innate to co-promote in Europe for a 50% profit share in the territory.