Gunderson Dettmer represented client Xencor, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, in its $100 million collaboration agreement with Johnson & Johnson and Johnson & Johnson’s related $25 million equity investment in Xencor. The collaboration, which is worth up to $1.2 billion in milestones, provides Johnson & Johnson with global rights to Xencor’s CD20xCD3 bispecific antibody, plamotamab, and provides for further development of plamotamab as well as research and development of CD28 bispecific antibody candidates against B-cell targets.

In the announcement of the agreement, President and CEO of Xencor Bassil Dahiyat said, “We are delighted to collaborate with Janssen’s leading scientists to expand the scope of the plamotamab program, particularly as we explore opportunities to combine with novel B-cell targeted CD28 bispecific antibodies that can potentially selectively enhance T-cell cytotoxic activity. This collaboration complements our plans to initiate combination clinical trials of plamotamab with tafasitamab and lenalidomide, and it expands our strategy to develop multiple highly active chemotherapy-free regimens for B-cell cancers.”

The Gunderson deal team was led by Brendan McCarthy and included Kirt Shuldberg, Aliya Sanders, and Jordan Murray.

Companies:
Xencor
Johnson & Johnson