AbbVie taps Umoja for new in vivo CAR-T deal

Ab­b­Vie penned two deals with Umo­ja Bio­phar­ma for its in vi­vo CAR-T cell ther­a­py pro­grams, the com­pa­nies an­nounced Thurs­day.

Ab­b­Vie gets an op­tion to li­cense Umo­ja’s lead pro­gram, a CD19-di­rect­ed ther­a­py for blood can­cers, un­der the first agree­ment. Un­der the sec­ond deal, the two com­pa­nies will de­vel­op up to four in vi­vo CAR-T ther­a­py can­di­dates for tar­gets cho­sen by Ab­b­Vie.

Umo­ja re­ceived up­front pay­ments and an eq­ui­ty in­vest­ment from Ab­b­Vie, though it de­clined to share specifics. With both deals added up, Umo­ja could re­ceive up to $1.44 bil­lion in mile­stones, plus sales mile­stones and roy­al­ties.

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