On January 7, 2016 Eureka Therapeutics, Inc. reported that Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Juno Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: JUNO) have entered into an exclusive license agreement for a novel, fully-human binding domain targeting MUC16 to be used for the potential development and commercialization of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) cell therapies for patients with MUC16 positive cancers, including ovarian, fallopian tube, and primary peritoneal cancers (Press release, Eureka Therapeutics, JAN 7, 2016, View Source [SID:SID1234515201]). The binder was developed under a collaboration agreement between Eureka Therapeutics and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

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"We are excited that Juno Therapeutics, a leader in CAR and TCR technologies, will pursue the development of this binding domain as a CAR cell therapy," said Dr. Cheng Liu, President and Chief Executive Officer of Eureka Therapeutics. "CAR cell therapy has shown promising potential for treating hematologic malignancies, and Eureka is working to accelerate the potential of the technology in a broader array of patients by developing antibodies that can recognize solid tumor antigens with the stringency required for CAR immunotherapy."

"We are pleased to enter into this agreement, as we continue to pursue the development of fully-human binding domains, with the goal of optimizing cell persistence and potential patient benefit of our engineered cells," said Mark Frohlich, M.D., Juno’s Executive Vice President, Development and Portfolio Strategy. "We opened a Phase I trial for our MUC16/IL-12 armored CAR product candidate in 2015, and if the safety and efficacy results are promising, this collaboration will allow us to more rapidly transition from the current murine binding domain to a fully-human binding domain."

Under the terms of the exclusive license agreement, Memorial Sloan Kettering granted Juno Therapeutics an exclusive, worldwide license, under both Memorial Sloan Kettering’s and Eureka’s rights to certain MUC16 binding domains, to develop and commercialize the MUC16 binding domains as part of CAR cell therapies for all indications. In return, Memorial Sloan Kettering will receive an upfront payment and potential future payments upon achievement of certain development, regulatory, and sales milestones, and annual net sales royalty payments. Pursuant to the collaboration agreement between Eureka and Memorial Sloan Kettering, Eureka will receive a portion of these payments from Memorial Sloan Kettering. Juno will fund additional development and commercialization activities.