Agreement Between Juno and Celgene for Immunotherapies Development

Celgene Corporation and Juno Therapeutics will partner for the following 10 years to create innovative immunotherapies for patients of cancer and autoimmune diseases. The first efforts will be directed to the Chimeric Antigen Receptor Technology (CAR-T) and T Cell Receptor (TCR) technologies developed by Juno. The collaboration brings together the leading small molecule and protein capabilities of Celgene and the advanced engineered T-cell capabilities of Juno.

Celgene is a pharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies for cancer and inflammatory diseases through protein and gene regulation. Juno is a biopharmaceutical company specialized in cancer immunotherapies. Specifically, they engineer T cells to kill cancer. To that end, they are developing the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and T cell receptor technologies (TCR). The CAR-T technology introduces a gene in the T cell that codes for a surface protein that recognizes cancer cells. The TCR technology provides the T cells with a surface receptor that recognizes cancer cell proteins, either from the surface or citoplasm. Both technologies allow T cells to recognize cancer cells and eventually kill them.

By this collaboration, Celgene gains rights to commercialize Juno programs outside North America and co-promote certain programs globally. Juno gains option to co-develop and co-promote select Celgene programs. Cellgene will pay $150 million upfront to Juno plus $93 a share for 9.1 million shares of Juno Therapeutics. 

Press release: http://ir.celgene.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=919929