Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc. has entered into a new agreement with Celgene Corp. to discover, develop and commercialize immunotherapies for solid and hematological cancers. The agreement expands Celgene’s existing four-target collaboration with Dragonfly from 2017, and increases the number of TriNKET immunotherapy drug candidates available for in licensing by Celgene to a total of eight.
 
The new deal gives Celgene the option to license exclusive worldwide rights to products developed using Dragonfly’s TriNKET technology platform for four new solid and hematological tumor targets in exchange for $50 million upfront, future milestones, and royalties. 
 
“We have watched the field of NK-cell biology and immunotherapy evolve considerably since entering our initial collaboration with Dragonfly and are pleased to expand our access to their novel therapeutic candidates,” said Rupert Vessey, FRCP DPhil, president of Research and Early Development for Celgene. “Based on the evidence we’ve seen to date, we believe that Dragonfly’s novel TriNKET technology provides a unique platform to support the discovery and development of immunotherapy drug candidates that may help cancer patients, with potential both as monotherapy and in combination with existing therapeutics.”
 
“Celgene is a leader in innovation in immunotherapy and we are very pleased to double the number of targets within our collaboration, and to move as partners into solid tumor targets,” said Dragonfly’s chief executive officer Bill Haney. “The Celgene team have been fantastic collaboration partners over the past 18 months, and we look forward to continuing our efforts to bring potential new immuno-oncology treatment options to patients with cancer.”