Benzinga | Jun 9, 2021 07:06AM EDT

Shoreline Biosciences and BeiGene Announce Strategic Worldwide Collaboration to Develop and Commercialize Genetically Modified Natural Killer Cell Therapies; Shoreline To Receive Upfront Payment Of $45M And Is Eligible For Addition Milestone Payments

Shoreline Biosciences, Inc., a biotechnology company developing intelligently designed allogeneic off-the-shelf, standardized and targeted natural killer (NK) and macrophage cellular immunotherapies derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) for cancer and other serious diseases, and BeiGene, Ltd. (NASDAQ:BGNE, HKEX: 06160))), a global biotechnology company, today announced an exclusive worldwide strategic collaboration to develop and commercialize a portfolio of NK-based cell therapeutics with Shoreline's iPSC NK cell technology and BeiGene's research and clinical development capabilities for different malignancies.

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(Graphic: Business Wire)

"BeiGene is a globally recognized biotechnology leader, and we are thrilled to announce our collaboration today," said Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D., Shoreline Chairman & CEO. "We look forward to combining our iPSC NK cells with BeiGene's discovery and clinical development expertise as the parties work to accelerate the development of the next generation of cell therapies for patients around the world."

Under the terms of the agreement, Shoreline will receive an upfront cash payment of $45 million from BeiGene and will be eligible to receive additional R&D funding, milestone payments and royalties based upon the achievement of certain development, regulatory, and commercial milestones. In the multi-target collaboration, the companies have agreed to work jointly to develop cell therapies for four designated therapeutic targets, with an option to expand the collaboration at a future date. Clinical development will be led by BeiGene globally, with Shoreline responsible for clinical manufacturing. BeiGene will have commercial rights globally, with Shoreline having an option to retain U.S. and Canadian commercialization rights for two targets. In connection with the agreement, BeiGene has an option to acquire an equity stake in Shoreline in its next round of equity financing, subject to specified conditions.

"We are excited to collaborate with Shoreline as BeiGene looks to expand our pipeline of transformative medicines from small molecule and antibody therapeutics to off-the-shelf cell therapies, a compelling area of research that has been primarily out of reach for many of the world's patients," said John V. Oyler, Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of BeiGene. "We look forward to collaborating with Shoreline, a leading company in developing iPSC-derived allogeneic cell therapies, as we combine our protein engineering technologies with Shoreline's standardized NK cell therapy technology. We are hopeful that this combination, along with our clinical development expertise for solid tumor and hematologic malignancies, will bring cell therapies to more patients who need them."