Yahoo Finance CytomX (CTMX) Up 55% on Strategic Partnership With Moderna
Shares of CytomX Therapeutics CTMX were up 55.3% in after-market trading on Jan 5 after management announced its collaboration agreement with Moderna MRNA to create investigational mRNA-based conditionally activated therapies.
The collaboration intends to combine Moderna's mRNA technology with CytomX's Probody Platform to generate and develop therapeutics for oncology and non-oncology conditions. While companies will collaborate on the discovery and pre-clinical development, Moderna will lead the clinical development and commercialization of therapeutics resulting from the agreement.
Per the terms of the agreement, CytomX will receive an upfront payment of $35 million (including $5 million as prepaid research funding) from Moderna. CytomX will also be eligible to receive up to $1.2 billion in milestone payments. In addition, CytomX will be eligible to receive tiered royalties on the future sales of therapies developed under this agreement.
The agreement also provides Moderna an option to participate in future equity financing by CytomX.
Shares of CytomX have declined 56.6% in the past year compared with the industry’s 16.6% fall.
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Like Moderna, CytomX also entered into a strategic collaboration with Regeneron REGN last November to develop next-generation bispecific immunotherapies. This collaboration intends to combine Regeneron and CytomX’s proprietary platforms to develop therapies for treating cancer. Per the terms, Regeneron will lead the development and commercialization of the candidates developed under this agreement. In return, Regeneron paid $30 million upfront payment to CytomX. In addition, CytomX will also be eligible to receive up to $2 billion in potential milestone payments and tiered royalties on the future sales of therapies developed under this agreement.
Apart from the above collaborations, CytomX has also entered into partnerships with large-cap pharma companies like AbbVie ABBV, Amgen and Bristol Myers and is developing pipeline candidates along with these companies, which have been designed to target multiple oncology indications.
In a separate press release, CytomX also announced business updates for 2023. The company intends to file separate investigational new drug (IND) applications for two new wholly owned programs, CX-2051 and CX-801, which will target cancer indications. CTMX also aims to broaden its pipeline in the field of T-cell-engaging bi-specifics.
CytomX also announced a pipeline update from the completed phase II cohort expansion study. This study evaluated CX-2029, an antibody drug conjugate (ADC) candidate, which is being developed in partnership with AbbVie. Data from this study showed that the AbbVie-partnered candidate continued to demonstrate encouraging anti-cancer activity in heavily pre-treated patients with squamous tumors. AbbVie and CytomX intend to determine the next steps for the candidate later this year.
CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. Price
CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. price | CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. Quote
Zacks Rank
CytomX currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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