AbbVie enters TL1A drug race with $1.7B deal

In an effort to develop new immunology treatments to offset the declining sales of its widely successful arthritis drug Humira (adalimumab), AbbVie has entered into a licensing agreement with China's FutureGen Biopharmaceutical. The deal, potentially worth up to $1.7 billion, focuses on creating a next-generation antibody treatment for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

As per the agreement revealed on Thursday, AbbVie will gain exclusive global rights to FG-M701, FutureGen's anti-TL1A antibody which is currently in the preclinical stage. AbbVie will make an initial payment of $150 million, with the potential to pay up to an additional $1.56 billion based on the achievement of specific development, regulatory, and commercial milestones. The agreement also includes tiered royalties on future sales.

FG-M701 is anticipated to outperform first-generation TL1A antibodies due to its superior efficacy and less frequent dosing requirements. This strategic move also allows AbbVie to establish a presence in the increasingly competitive TL1A sector that garnered significant attention last year.

The TL1A space has seen a flurry of activity: Roche invested $7.1 billion upfront to acquire Roivant's TL1A drug Telavant (RVT-3101) in December following promising mid-stage results in ulcerative colitis. Earlier, Merck & Co. spent $10.8 billion to acquire Prometheus and its TL1A program PRA023, now known as tulisokibart (MK-7240), which is currently in Phase III trials for both ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

Sanofi also initiated a TL1A program last year through a deal with Teva, which included €469 million ($505 million) upfront for the rights to co-develop and jointly market Teva's anti-TL1A candidate TEV-48574 as an IBD treatment.

"The prevalence of IBD continues to rise, and many patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease do not respond to existing therapies," stated Jonathon Sedgwick, AbbVie's global head of discovery research. He emphasized the emerging significance of TL1A as a potential new mechanism to address these conditions.

FutureGen's CEO, Zhaoyu Jin, remarked that the partnership with AbbVie acknowledges the potential of their structural biology STEP platform, which was used to engineer FG-M701 as well as other candidates like their PD-L1/CD40 bispecific antibody that is currently in clinical trials. Jin expressed confidence in AbbVie's ability to leverage its global scale to fully realize FG-M701's therapeutic potential and swiftly bring this therapy to patients suffering from IBD.