Celgene, Juno Forge $1 Billion T Cell and CAR-T Partnership

Celgene and Juno Therapeutics have entered into a 10-year collaboration leveraging their T cell strategies to develop treatments for patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Celgene will make an upfront payment of $150 million and purchase 9.1 million shares of Juno stock at $93 a share — double last Monday’s closing price, the firms said. The deal will close during the third quarter of 2015.

The partnership will initially focus on chimeric antigen receptor and T cell receptor technologies. Juno will be responsible for research and development in North America and will retain commercialization rights, while Celgene will develop and commercialize in the rest of the world, paying Juno a royalty on sales.

Juno’s B cell maturation antigen isn’t part of the agreement.

Juno will also be able to co-develop and commercialize any Celgene T cell-targeting candidates, with 70 percent of profits and expenses allocated to Celgene and 30 percent to Juno, the firms said.

The agreement also gives Celgene the option to partner with Juno on commercializing Juno’s oncology and cell therapy autoimmune products outside North America. — Kellen Owings