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Incyte and Calithera Enter into Deal for Oncology Candidate

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Incyte Corporation (INCY - Free Report) and Calithera Biosciences, Inc. (CALA - Free Report) entered into a global collaboration and license agreement for research, development and commercialization of the latter's arginase inhibitor candidate,CB-1158, in the fields of hematology and oncology.          

Incyte’s share price has gained 62.9% in the past one year, while the Zacks classified Medical-Biomedical and Genetics industry fell 7.8%.

The partnership will assess CB-1158 in a number of trials associated with novel therapeutic combinations and will speed up its development across hematological and oncology indications. The candidate is currently being studied under a monotherapy dose-escalation trial. Additional studies are expected to evaluate CB-1158 in combination with immuno-oncology agents, including anti-PD-1 therapy.

According to the terms of the agreement, Calithera will receive an upfront payment of $45 million from Incyte. Incyte will make an equity investment of $8 million in Calithera through the purchase of shares at a price of $4.65 per share. It will also receive worldwide rights for the development and commercialization of CB-1158 in hematology and oncology. Meanwhile, Calithera will have some rights to research, develop and commercialize certain other arginase inhibitors in certain orphan indications and will be entitled to receive over $430 million in potential development, regulatory and commercialization milestones from Incyte.  

Incyte will fund 70% of global development, Calithera will be responsible for the remaining 30%. Once CB-1158 receives regulatory approvals and is commercialized, Incyte and Calithera will share the profits or losses in the U.S in the ratio of 60% and 40%, respectively. According to the agreement, Calithera may also choose to opt out of its co-funding obligations.

Incyte’s pipeline appears promising. The company has several candidates in early-to mid-stage development in its pipeline, including both targeted therapies and immune therapies that are being developed in oncology and even outside oncology. It is also associated with pharmaceutical giants like Novartis AG (NVS - Free Report) and Eli Lilly and Company (LLY - Free Report) . Per the 2009 agreement with Novartis that included Jakafi (excluding topical formulations), Incyte is marketing Jakafi in the U.S. , while Novartis is responsible for the same outside the U.S. Moreover, Incyte’s deal with Eli Lilly gives the latter exclusive worldwide development and commercialization rights to Olumiant.

Zacks Rank

Incyte and Calithera currently carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here.

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