Cambridge, MA-based BIND Biosciences got a large vote of confidence today for its novel targeted nanomedicine technology. The startup announced today that Amgen (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMGN]]), in Thousand Oaks, CA, has agreed to invest up to $180.5 million to co-develop a cancer drug based on BIND’s drug development platform, starting with upfront and milestone payments of $46.5 million.
Bind is one of more than a dozen startups to emerge from the lab of famed MIT Professor and Xconomist Robert Langer, who was just awarded the prestigious National Medal Technology and Innovation in December. Omid Farokhzad, a professor at Harvard Medical School, co-developed BIND’s nanomedicine technology with Langer. The startup is developing cancer drugs using minute nanoparticles it calls Accurins that are meant to safely ferry toxic chemotherapies to very specific targets on cancer cells.
The Amgen collaboration calls for the two companies to develop a new drug for treating a range of solid tumors, using an enzyme inhibiting compound already developed by Amgen combined with BIND’s targeted nanomedicine technology. BIND and Amgen will work together on preclinical development and then Amgen will take over future development and commercialization.
After the initial payment, Amgen will pay BIND up to $134 million more in regulatory and sales milestone payments, plus royalties from any future sales.
