What happened
Shares of Innate Pharma (IPHA -2.27%) were up 8% Thursday morning after rising as much as 10.6% earlier in the day after the company said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had granted Fast Track Designation to a cancer therapy the company is developing with Sanofi. The stock is still down more than 12% so far in 2023.
So what
Innate is a clinical-stage biotech company that specializes in immunotherapies to treat cancer. The company said that the FDA had given Fast Track Designation to SAR579/IPH6101 to treat certain blood cancers. The drug is the result of a research collaboration with Sanofi. The therapy was developed with Innate's antibody-based NK cell engager therapeutics (ANKET) platform to make next-generation natural killer cell engagers to treat certain cancers.
Now what
Both companies benefited from the news though Sanofi's shares were up only slightly. The companies' research collaboration and license agreement means that Sanofi will make and commercialize any products that come from the collaboration while Innate will receive up to 400 million euros (roughly $428 million) in milestone payments as well as royalties on net sales. The Fast Track Designation will help speed along the potential approval process for the therapy.
Innate has several collaboration agreements. In the first quarter, the company said it had 135 million euros (roughly $144.5 million dollars), enough to fund operations into 2025, and that wasn't counting $5 million in an upfront payment the company is receiving as part of its licensing agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical. In the first quarter, innate reported 26 million euros (approximately $27.8 million) in collaboration revenue, but a net loss of 41 million euros (roughly $43.8 million). Innate's pipeline has 12 programs, some in late-stage development, though IPH6101 is only in a phase 1/2 trial to treat acute myeloid leukemia at this point.