After kicking the tires on Autolus Therapeutics’ targeting technology, Moderna has decided to pay up for the right to use the binders in an mRNA therapy. The exercising of the option positions Moderna to use the binders in a candidate against an undisclosed immuno-oncology target.
Moderna landed an option on Autolus’ binders last year. The deal saw Moderna pay $1.5 million and get a license to perform research and preclinical development activities on target sequences related to some of its targets. Autolus also granted Moderna an option to acquire an exclusive commercial license to use its technology on a target-by-target basis in return for $2 million.
Now, the mRNA specialist has taken up its option. In addition to the upfront option exercise payment, Autolus is in line to receive development and commercial milestone payments plus royalties if a therapy makes it to market.
The 2021 deal commits Moderna to up to $60 million in milestones, split evenly between development and sales events, per product, plus royalties in the low to mid-single digits on net sales. While the sums are relatively small, Martin Pule, chief scientific officer at Autolus, framed the deal as a validation of the technology.
“The collaboration with Moderna has been a productive partnership, and it’s great to see this work progressing to the next stage,” Pule said in a statement. “The use of our technology in Moderna’s mRNA platform continues to underscore Autolus’ leadership in the development of innovative differentiated binder and cell programming technologies.”
Autolus developed its binders to differentiate its T-cell therapies. In the case of Autolus’ lead candidate obe-cel, previously known as AUTO1, the push for differentiation resulted in a CD19 binder that has a fast off-rate, the term used to describe how quickly a drug leaves a binding site. Moderna is working on mRNA therapeutics, rather than cell therapies, but sees opportunities to use the Autolus binders to support its activities.