AbbVie joins TL1A drug pursuit through $1.7B alliance

2024-06-13

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Continuing its search for new immunology therapies to compensate for declining sales of blockbuster arthritis drug Humira (adalimumab), AbbVie inked a licensing deal potentially worth $1.7 billion with China's FutureGen Biopharmaceutical to develop a next-generation antibody treatment for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Under the agreement announced Thursday, AbbVie will receive exclusive global rights to FG-M701, FutureGen's preclinical anti-TL1A antibody for IBD, in exchange for $150 million in upfront and near-term milestones, as well as up to $1.56 billion more tied to the achievement of certain development, regulatory and commercial targets, plus tiered royalties.

According to the companies, FG-M701 could have an edge over first-generation TL1A antibodies, with better efficacy and less frequent dosing. The deal also gives AbbVie a foothold in the increasingly competitive TL1A space that picked up steam last year.

TL1A frenzy

Roche paid $7.1 billion upfront to acquire Roivant's TL1A drug Telavant (RVT-3101) in December after positive mid-stage data in ulcerative colitis. Prior to that, Merck & Co. put up $10.8 billion for Prometheus to get its hands on PRA023, a TL1A programme that now goes by tulisokibart (MK-7240) and is in Phase III studies in ulcerative colitis and another in Crohn's disease that just got under way.

Sanofi also kicked off a TL1A programme last year through a deal that included €469 million ($505 million) upfront in cash for rights to co-develop and jointly market Teva's anti-TL1A candidate TEV-48574 as a treatment for IBD. For more, see – Spotlight On: Signs pointing to an anti-TL1A feeding frenzy.

"The prevalence of IBD continues to increase, and many people living with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease do not respond to current therapies," noted AbbVie's global head of discovery research Jonathon Sedgwick, hinting at TL1A's emerging role as a possible new mechanism to address it.

Meanwhile, FutureGen said the collaboration validates its structural biology STEP platform used to engineer FG-M701 and other candidates like its PD-L1/CD40 bispecific antibody currently in clinical trials. "We believe AbbVie is a great partner, with the ability to apply their…global scale to realising FG-M701's therapeutic potential and rapidly advancing this therapy for patients suffering from IBD," said CEO Zhaoyu Jin.

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