Calithera Biosciences, a clinical-stage pharma company focused on small molecule drugs against tumor metabolism and immunology targets to treat cancer, has achieved pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic goals for CB-1158 under its agreement with Incyte Corp., triggering a $12 million payment from Incyte.

“We are very excited to achieve this early milestone under our collaboration with Incyte as CB-1158 has demonstrated the desired pharmacologic activity in humans, with a corresponding elevation in plasma arginine levels to those achieved with efficacious doses in preclinical models of cancer. Through our collaboration with Incyte, we will continue to evaluate the role of arginase inhibition in the immuno-oncology setting with CB-1158 and we expect to present additional clinical data mid-2017,” said Susan Molineaux, president and chief executive officer of Calithera Biosciences.

The companies established a global collaboration and license agreement in January for the research, development and commercialization of Calithera’s small molecule arginase inhibitor CB-1158 in hematology and oncology. CB-1158 is currently being studied in a monotherapy trial and also in combination with anti-PD-1 therapy. Additional studies will evaluate CB-1158 in combination with other immuno-oncology agents.