Facet, Trubion in $196M collaboration deal

When we last heard from Trubion Pharmaceuticals, the company had just cut 25 percent of its workforce to preserve enough cash to survive the economic downturn. But the company has good news today. Trubion Pharmaceuticals has inked a development and commercialization with Facet Biotech worth up to $196.5 million.

The deal covers TRU-016, a Phase I drug for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The drug is a CD37-directed small modular immunopharmaceutical protein therapeutic. Facet and Trubion's deal covers every indication of the drug and all other CD37-directed protein therapeutics. In addition to CLL, the drug may treat non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple sclerosis.

Trubion will receive an upfront payment of $20 million and could earn up to $176.5 million in additional milestones. Facet and Trubion will split the cost of development, commercialization and promotional activities, and all profits. In addition, Facet will purchase 2,243,649 shares of newly issued Trubion stock for an aggregate purchase price of $10 million.

"TRU-016 is a promising therapeutic with impressive preclinical and preliminary clinical data for CLL that will greatly enhance our pipeline and support a key strategic objective, which is to build a robust oncology portfolio," said Faheem Hasnain, president and CEO of Facet Biotech. "After a thorough evaluation of a number of programs over the past several months, we concluded that TRU-016 was a particularly compelling program and a great fit with our pipeline and expertise."

- here's the press release