The Imugene Limited (ASX: IMU) share price was put on ice at 9.4 cents before the market open on Wednesday pending an announcement on a proposed capital raising.
The biotech requested the trading halt remain in place until it makes its announcement, or until the commencement of trading on Friday — whichever comes first.
Meantime, Imugene has released separate news of an exclusive global licensing deal with a NASDAQ-listed United States company.
Let's take a look at the details.
Imugene share price sits still amid licensing deal
Imugene is a clinical-stage immuno‐oncology biotech developing virotherapies to treat and kill cancer.
Today, the company announced an agreement with Precision BioSciences Inc (NASDAQ: DTIL).
The agreement gives Imugene a worldwide exclusive license to Precision's azer-cel allogeneic CD19 CAR T cell therapy program to treat blood cancers.
This includes the rights to develop and commercialise the azer-cel technology.
To clarify, this isn't the news that prompted the trading halt. That relates to the proposed capital raising. We don't have any details on that as yet.
What is Imugene paying for the licence?
Imugene will pay US$8 million in cash for the licence, along with US$13 million in deferred consideration.
The deferred consideration has a term of 12 months. Imugene can choose to pay the deferred consideration in cash or shares.
Over the development life of azer-cel, Imugene will also pay up to US$198 million in performance-based payments.
The payments will be linked to certain value-inflection development milestones.
These milestones include approvals for use for multiple indications in the US and Europe.
Imugene also inherits the lease to a 32,800 sq feet GMP manufacturing facility in North Carolina, drug material for completion of a Phase 1b clinical trial, and a highly experienced team of approximately 50.
What does azer-cel do?
Azer-cel treats patients with relapsed blood cancers.
Imugene said azer-cel is "highly complementary" to its onCARlytics platform.
By combining the therapies, Imugene says there is potential to start a registrational study in 2024, with a view to developing the first approved allogeneic (allo) CAR T cell therapy for cancer.
Imugene CEO Leslie Chong said:
By adding azer-cel to the Imugene pipeline, our onCARlytics program will form the foundation of a novel and broadened approach to cell therapy. CD19 is a well validated clinical target in blood cancers.
OnCARlytics can enhance the expression of CD19 on solid tumours. Azer-cel is a supercharged allogeneic T cell designed to identify and kill malignant cells expressing CD19.
We are thrilled about the potential benefit for patients from the combination of these two technologies.
Imugene share price snapshot
The Imugene share price is down 33% in 2023 so far.
The S&P/ASX 200 Health Care Index (ASX: XHJ) has retreated 0.7% over the same period.
