Amgen and TScan Therapeutics announced a multi-year collaboration that will use TScan's proprietary target discovery platform, TargetScan, to identify the antigens recognized by T cells in patients with Crohn's disease.
Under the terms of the agreement, TScan will receive a $30 million upfront payment and is eligible to earn over $500 million in success-based preclinical, clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones as well as tiered single-digit royalty payments.
The TargetScan platform, which is now extended to identify MHC class II targets of CD4+ T cells, is well-suited for the discovery of antigens targeted by the immune system in inflammatory bowel disease.
Anti-inflammatory drugs have traditionally been the standard of care for patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease, but often lack efficacy and durability. TScan's platform provides a best-in-class approach to identify non-conventional drug targets to enable the development of potential first-in-class therapeutics to address unmet medical needs.
