Per the agreement, NJCTTQ may pay Abpro up to $4bn (€3.5bn), including $60m in research and development funding, milestones and royalties. Abpro will retain all commercial rights for any approved molecules outside of China and Thailand. China-based NCTTQ will hold the rights to approved molecules in China.
Both companies will collaborate globally to pursue pre-clinical and clinical development, and commercialization.
“Our ex-China commercial rights have the potential to generate significant long-term value for our company. We intend to pursue additional similar development collaborations that leverage our innovative technology platforms and programs that include commercial rights in key global markets,” Ian Chan, executive chairman and co-founder of Abpro said in a statement.
According to Abpro, NJCTTQ has a pipeline that is “highly complementary” to that of Abpro’s immuno-oncology development platforms.
NJCTTQ will use Abpro’s immuno-oncology platforms, DiversImmune and Multimab. According to the company, DiversImmune has generated antibodies against more than 300 targets, and Mulitmab enables the assembly of antibodies into a variety of bi- and multi-specific antibody formats.
Using the platforms, Abpro has developed a pipeline of seven immuno-oncology therapeutic candidates, including T-cell engagers.
Abpro was unable to respond to our request for comment.