On June 4, 2020 Jounce Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNCE), a clinical-stage company focused on the discovery and development of novel cancer immunotherapies and predictive biomarkers, reported that it has regained the worldwide rights to JTX-8064 from Bristol Myers Squibb (Press release, Jounce Therapeutics, JUN 4, 2020, View Source [SID1234560826]). JTX-8064 is a highly-selective, potential first-in-class antibody that targets the Leukocyte Immunoglobulin Like Receptor B2 (LILRB2) on macrophages, and was licensed to Celgene in July 2019. As part of its Celgene integration process, Bristol Myers Squibb is streamlining its pipeline and addressing areas of overlap. As a result, Bristol Myers Squibb notified Jounce that the JTX-8064 License Agreement is being terminated.

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"We are thrilled to regain the rights to JTX-8064 and we view this as a significant opportunity for Jounce. Though we highly valued our longstanding partnership with Celgene, now a Bristol Myers Squibb company, having an additional wholly-owned program enables us to further our mission to discover new immunotherapies from a variety of important immune cell types, and develop them for patients who are not well served by today’s therapies," said Richard Murray, Ph.D., chief executive officer and president of Jounce Therapeutics. "The discovery and development of JTX-8064 showcases the strength of our Translational Science Platform in target identification, and our ability to move programs towards the clinic in a rapid manner. In particular, we believe that LILRB2 may function as an immune checkpoint for macrophages and based on our body of existing preclinical data, JTX-8064 has the potential to re-program tumor-associated macrophages within the tumor microenvironment and enhance anti-tumor immunity. We are eager to advance this program into the clinic and will make every effort to do this expeditiously.

License Agreement
In July 2019, Jounce and Celgene, which is now a Bristol Myers Squibb company, announced an exclusive License Agreement for the worldwide rights to JTX-8064. Under the terms of the agreement, Jounce received a $50.0 million non-refundable license fee from Celgene. Effective, June 3, 2020, the License Agreement is terminated. Beyond transition costs and efforts, neither Bristol Myers Squibb or Jounce have any further financial or service obligations to one another. All Jounce intellectual property rights pertaining to JTX-8064 and licensed to Celgene have been reacquired by Jounce.

About JTX-8064
JTX-8064 is an anti-LILRB2 antibody and is the first tumor-associated macrophage candidate to emerge from Jounce’s Translational Science Platform. Preclinical data presented at the 2019 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting supports the development of JTX-8064 as a novel immunotherapy to reprogram immune-suppressive macrophages and enhance anti-tumor immunity.