Amgen and BIND Therapeutics said today they have ended an unsuccessful 1-1/2 year collaboration to develop and commercialize a kinase inhibitor nanomedicine for solid tumors—a deal that could have netted BIND up to $299.5 million.
The companies agreed in January 2013 to create targeted and programmable therapeutics called Accurins™ for solid cancer tumors by combining an undisclosed kinase inhibitor from Amgen with BIND’s platform for targeted and programmable nanomedicines.
In December, the companies extended their 12-month collaboration by six months, to July.
“Despite achieving the objective of high tumor concentrations, the results were not sufficiently compelling to proceed forward and both collaborators have agreed that the program will not be continued,” Scott Minick, BIND’s CEO, said in a statement.
Under their collaboration, Amgen had the option to select a novel Accurin candidate for further development “for all uses except for some vaccine applications,” according to BIND’s Form 10-Q for the first quarter of this year, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The option gave Amgen sole responsibility for all further development and commercialization activities, as well as saying Amgen “must use commercially reasonable efforts to develop, seek regulatory approval for, and commercialize at least one licensed product. However, the option also directed Amgen to pay BIND an annual target exclusivity fee of $54 million over a ten-year period following its exercise, and directed that Amgen elect each year whether to maintain that exclusivity, with the fee due each year Amgen agreed to do so.
If Amgen failed to use its option, then BIND could exercise its own exclusive option to obtain a license from Amgen to develop, manufacture and commercialize Accurins containing the Amgen therapeutic payload.
In the form 10-Q, BIND disclosed having received $5 million upfront, with the potential to receive up to $111.5 million in contingent payments for up to two indications, tied to Amgen exercising its option, then achieving specified development and regulatory events. BIND also stood to receive up to $188 million in additional payments from Amgen tied to achieving specified commercial events for those indications.
Minick insisted BIND remained focused on the continued development of its Accurin platform, including its lead drug candidate BIND-014—an Accurin that targets PSMA and contains the chemotherapy drug docetaxel—as well as on continuing its collaborations with Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and its newest partner, Roche.
On June 20, BIND and Roche launched their collaboration. It will combine BIND Accurins with Roche payloads and targeting ligands to discover new nanomedicines to treat diseases outside of cancer. The value of that collaboration was not disclosed.
The CEO added that BIND still expects to fund its operating expenses and capital spending requirements through at least mid-2015 through cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, and research development funding anticipated from existing collaborations, excluding any potential milestone payments.