CAT and Amgen restructure deal

Cambridge Antibody Technology of the UK has announced the restructuring of an existing antibody development and marketing collaboration agreement with US firm Immunex, subsequently acquired by biotechnology company Amgen, in which the latter takes over responsibility for the future development of the antibodies covered by the deal.

Under the terms of the agreement, Amgen will take responsibility for the further development and marketing of the therapeutic antibody candidates isolated by CAT against two targets on which the parties agreed to collaborate and will bear all the associated costs. In return, the UK company will receive from Amgen an initial fee and potential milestone payments and royalties on future sales. Actual figures were not released but analysts have suggested that these royalties could be in the high single-digit range.

One candidate has been delivered by CAT and a second is the subject of a continuing research program funded by Amgen and conducted by CAT. This will be delivered to the US company in due course.