Benzinga | Aug 24, 2020 09:02AM EDT

NantKwest And ImmunityBio Sign Collaboration Agreement For Joint Development, Manufacturing, Marketing, And Commercialization Of COVID-19 Vaccine And Related Therapeutics

Both companies agree to share equally in costs relating to COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccine candidates globally; global net profits to be shared 60%/40% in favor of the company contributing the product

NantKwest, Inc. (NASDAQ:NK), a clinical-stage, natural killer cell-based therapeutics company, and ImmunityBio, a privately held immunotherapy company, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to jointly develop, manufacture, market, and commercialize therapeutics and vaccines for combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the terms of the definitive agreement, the two companies agree to share equally the costs incurred after August 21, 2020 of development, manufacturing, marketing, and commercialization of the products each is developing related to COVID-19. Should a product be commercialized successfully, the companies have agreed to a 60-40 percentage split of net profits, with the larger share going to the company that developed the product. The agreement also details the structure of shared governance of the joint collaboration.

The two product candidates currently in development under the agreement are a mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapeutic from NantKwest, whose goal is to reduce the time a critically ill patient spends on a ventilator; and a COVID-19 vaccine product from ImmunityBio, which is anticipated to soon enter into a phase I clinical trial.

"The severity and global nature of the COVID-19 pandemic demands that researchers move rapidly and have the resources necessary to develop ways to fight this deadly virus," said Patrick Soon-Shiong, Chairman and CEO of NantKwest and ImmunityBio. "The agreement strengthens the efforts of both companies on behalf of patients, while also ensuring each company will earn a fair share of the returns of a successful product."