Dive Brief:
- Jazz Pharmaceuticals scooped up rights to a drug that targets HER2 amid profound recent changes in the landscape of treatments aimed at the well-known, tumor-promoting protein.
- Biotechnology company Zymeworks developed the medicine, known as zanidatamab, to work in a new way to block HER2. The drug has “the potential to transform the current standard of care” in multiple cancers, said Rob Iannone, global head of research at Jazz, in a statement announcing the deal Wednesday. Zymeworks shares rose 19% in early trading.
- Under the agreement, Jazz will pay Zymeworks $50 million up front, plus another $325 million if it chooses to continue the partnership after seeing top-line data from a study in biliary tract cancer that’s due by the end of the year. Zymeworks may also receive as much as $1.4 billion in regulatory and commercial milestone payments plus sales royalties if the drug gets to market.
Dive Insight:
HER2 drugs are in the spotlight after the tremendous success achieved by AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo with a treatment known as Enhertu.
Since the two struck a multibillion-dollar deal in 2019 to co-develop the drug, Enhertu has won multiple approvals in breast, gastric and lung tumors. Along the way the medicine made history as well, becoming the first cleared by the Food and Drug Administration to target cancers that express low amounts of HER2. Previously, doctors had looked at cancers as either HER2 positive or negative in deciding whether patients should be treated with a drug like Herceptin. Enhertu offers an option for the many patients that are in between, with low, detectable levels of the protein.
The success has raised the bar for other would-be HER2 drug developers. On Tuesday, Ambrx Biopharma announced plans to reorganize, cut jobs and pause development of its experimental HER2-targeting drug, citing a “significant shift” in the competitive landscape in breast cancer treatment.
Zymeworks CEO Kenneth Galbraith also acknowledged that “enhanced competition in the HER2 space” when discussing the possibility of collaborations with other companies during a call with investors in August. In today’s statement, he said the cash infusion and partnership with Jazz will help move the drug through development as quickly as possible.
As part of the deal, Jazz gained development and commercialization rights for zanidatamab all over the world, except in some Asia/Pacific territories already licensed to BeiGene. The drug is currently in pivotal trials for use as a second-line treatment in HER2-expressing biliary tract cancer and as a first-line treatment for HER2-positive gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma.