Boehringer Ingelheim awards milestone payment to Xencor

Xencor, Inc. announced today that the Company received a milestone payment from Boehringer Ingelheim. The payment was triggered by the regulatory submission for Phase 1 clinical trials of a novel monoclonal antibody that was optimized using one of Xencor's XmAb® Fc (constant fragment) technology platforms under a technology license agreement entered in February 2007. The amount of the milestone payment was not disclosed. XmAb® engineered high ADCC Fc domains give antibodies more tumor killing power by improving their capacity to recruit the immune system to target cancer cells, a process called antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity or ADCC. This program is the third oncology antibody using XmAb® High ADCC technology to enter clinical testing.

“Our partners continue to move Fc engineered antibodies into the clinic optimized for heightened potency and convenient dosing, important attributes when differentiating from existing agents and biosimilars”

"Our partners continue to move Fc engineered antibodies into the clinic optimized for heightened potency and convenient dosing, important attributes when differentiating from existing agents and biosimilars," said Bassil Dahiyat, Ph.D., CEO of Xencor. "Our XmAb technology is also fueling Xencor's internal pipeline, which includes several optimized antibodies for both oncology and autoimmune diseases."

As part of its license agreement, Boehringer Ingelheim has also exercised an option to utilize XmAb High ADCC technology for a second discovery program in oncology against an undisclosed target.

Source: Xencor, Inc.