AstraZeneca is wielding the ax to a bloated pipeline and Inovio has found itself the latest victim. MedImmune, an AstraZeneca unit, has terminated a collaboration agreement with Inovio for the cancer immunotherapy MEDI0457, which was being developed to target cancers caused by certain types of the human papillomavirus.
The deal, originally signed in 2015, was worth $27.5 million upfront with $700 million in biobucks down the line. Inovio has managed to pick up a couple million dollars through the partnership, but the remaining funds are now off the table.
MedImmune will continue to fund a handful of phase 2 trials still underway as they wrap up. One trial in head and neck cancer recently completed a final data cutoff with a readout expected by year-end 2022, Inovio said. A second externally sponsored trial with MD Andersen will also continue until completion.
Inovio will regain the rights to MEDI0457, which was known as INO-3112 back at the Pennsylvania biotech’s headquarters. But the therapy’s future is still unclear. Inovio will cease any development activities that would have required reimbursement from MedImmune while they consider the next steps.
RELATED: Inovio heads to Brazil for phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial, months after U.S. sent biotech packing
The news was revealed in an 8-K (PDF) from Inovio issued after-market on Friday, a key biotech method of tying to partly bury bad news. Inovio said the collaboration has so far garnered about $2 million and change from MedImmune. RBC Capital Markets had expected Inovio to collect about $210 million in milestones and double-digit royalties on $300 million in peak sales, according to a Monday note.
Inovio’s therapy has fallen victim to AstraZeneca’s “usual pipeline pruning,” according to RBC—but the cut is “still a disappointment.” This is not the first time the U.K. pharma has axed a collaboration with Inovio. The companies previously cut ties over two preclinical DNA-based oncology vaccine programs in 2019.
The 2015 partnership was also trimmed back in 2019 down to the one vaccine, MEDI0457.
RBC noted “a pattern of pressure” on Inovio’s pipeline, and the end of the MedImmune deal is another stressor. But the biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine INO-4800 is slowly making headway, even as it's fallen behind the first-to-market winners. The vaccine was recently selected to be part of a large phase 3 clinical trial conducted by the World Health Organization.
The goal of the trial is to develop the next generation of shots that can be needle-free. Inovio’s vaccine is given through a device called Cellectra that administers an electrical pulse to the skin to open up the pores for delivery of the medicine.
Inovio's shares were mostly holding steady as the markets opened Monday, down just over 1% to $7.05.