Innate Pharma SA has reportedly announced a multi-term agreement with AstraZeneca and its global biologics research and development subsidiary, MedImmune. Innate looks to building on an existing collaboration to accelerate the oncology portfolio of each company and bring new medicines to patients faster.

Apparently, Innate will be able to develop its commercial footprint and solidify its capability to invest in its immuno-oncology (IO) pipeline and R&D platform. It will also enrich the IO portfolio of AstraZeneca with preclinical and clinical potential new medicines.

As part of the agreement, Innate is licensing the EU and US commercial rights to AstraZeneca’s Lumoxiti (moxetumomab pasudotox-tdfk) which was recently FDA-approved for hairy cell leukemia ("HCL"). AstraZeneca, in turn, will obtain full oncology rights to monalizumab, the first-in-class humanized anti-NKG2A antibody. AstraZeneca further gains option rights to four pre-clinical molecules from the pipeline of Innate along with IPH5201, an antibody targeting CD39.

Chief Executive of Innate Pharma, Mondher Mahjoubi, stated that the company is transitioning to become a fully-integrated biotech focused on oncology. The company is addressing significant unmet medical needs like relapsed/refractory hairy cell leukemia, and Lumoxiti is a therapeutic innovation for patients suffering from these diseases, he added.

Mahjoubi said the company’s commercial team will focus on rare cancers and generate more value with the development of its hemato-oncology proprietary pipeline. Moreover, the decision of AstraZeneca to collaborate on IPH5201 and four yet to be selected molecules, in addition to obtaining full oncology rights to monalizumab justifies the strength of Innate’s oncology pipeline, he mentioned.

Chief Executive of AstraZeneca, Pascal Soriot, said that the expanded alliance with Innate enables AstraZeneca to explore the potential of next generation immuno-oncology pathways, and further strengthen its leadership in immuno-oncology with Innate’s world-class scientific team. This collaboration also secures long-term commercialization of Lumoxiti through dedicated focus and investment by Innate.

For the record, AstraZeneca will acquire an equity stake of 9.8% in Innate Pharma via 6,260,500 new shares issued to AstraZeneca at €10 per share, under the long-term collaboration among the two companies.