Xencor, Inc., a company using Fc engineering for the discovery and
development of next-generation antibodies, announced today that the
Company received a milestone payment from Pfizer Inc. The amount of the
payment was not disclosed. The payment was triggered by the initiation
of human clinical trials of a novel monoclonal antibody therapeutic that
was optimized using Xencor technologies under a March 2009 technology
license agreement.
Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer has access to Xencor’s antibody
optimization technology during a non-exclusive research period for
evaluation of the Fc engineering technology in several of its discovery
projects.
“Xencor’s Fc antibody technologies continue to be validated by the
progress our team and partners are making in developing next-generation
therapeutic antibodies and advancing them into the clinic,” said Bassil
Dahiyat, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Xencor.