AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) has announced it has entered an agreement to acquire TeneoTwo and its Phase 1 clinical-stage CD19/CD3 T-cell engager TNB-486.
The company will pay $100 million on deal closing to acquire all outstanding equity of TeneoTwo. In addition, AstraZeneca will pay an additional $805 million in milestone payments and another $360 million in potential milestone payments to TeneoTwo’s equity holders.
TeneoTwo is investigating TNB-486 as a potential therapy for relapsed and refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
AstraZeneca believes TNB-486 can potentially treat B-cell hematologic malignancies such as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and follicular lymphoma.
In 2017, AstraZeneca won FDA approval for Calquence (acalabrutinib) for mantle cell lymphoma. In 2019, acalabrutinib won an indication for chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Acalabrutinib is an agammaglobulinemia tyrosine kinase inhibitor.
Conversely, TNB is a T-cell engager, a bispecific molecule designed to coax T-cells into identifying and destroying cancer cells.
“By redirecting the body’s natural immune response to target B-cell malignancies, TNB-486 alone or in combination with CD20-targeted therapy could potentially deepen clinical responses and improve patient outcomes,” said Anas Younes, senior vice president of hematology R&D at AstraZeneca, in a statement. “We believe this innovative molecule, which was designed to optimize the therapeutic window of T-cell activation, will enable us to explore novel combinations that have the potential to become new standards of care in this setting.”
Filed Under: Oncology
