Amgen, Generate Biomedicines sign $1.9bn worth research collaboration deal

Amgen has signed a research collaboration deal worth up to $1.9 billion with Cambridge-based Generate Biomedicines for the discovery and development of protein therapeutics for five clinical targets across various therapeutic areas and multiple modalities by leveraging the latter’s machine learning-enabled technology platform.

Under the terms of the research collaboration deal, Amgen will make an upfront funding of $50 million in the initial five programs.

Generate Biomedicines will also be entitled to receive future royalties, while Amgen will be entitled to nominate up to five additional programs at an additional cost.

For each of the programs, Amgen will pay up to $370 million to Generate Biomedicines in future milestones and royalties up to low double digits.

The California-based biopharma company will also take part in a future financing round for Generate Biomedicines.

Amgen, Generate Biomedicines sign $1.9bn worth research collaboration deal. Photo courtesy of Amgen Inc.

David M. Reese — Amgen executive vice president of research and development said: “We are now at a scientific hinge point, where computational approaches can advance our knowledge of biology and further drive our ability to design the right molecule for some of the most challenging targets.

“We believe Generate Biomedicine’s integrated in silico design and wet lab capabilities combined with Amgen’s strength in protein engineering can accelerate our drug discovery efforts, generating novel protein sequences with optimal therapeutic properties.”

According to Amgen, the combination of its expertise in biologics drug discovery with the Generate Biomedicines’ artificial intelligence (AI) platform gives the scope to further enable multispecific drug design by taking time off discovery timelines and creating potential lead molecules with predictable manufacturability and clinical behavior.

Mike Nally — CEO of Generate Biomedicines said: “This agreement is a recognition of the transformative power of our generative biology platform.

“We’re proud to partner strategically with Amgen to combine their world-leading expertise in engineering protein-based therapies with our unique machine learning-enabled drug generation platform.

“With our technology platform, we are able to expand beyond just proteins that are found in nature – creating de novo, purpose-built proteins capable of performing any desired function under timelines that have not been possible through other approaches.”