Celgene To Collaborate With VentiRx On TRL8 Receptor Agonist For Cancer

03 Oct 2012

VentiRx’s immunotherapy approach has created a compound, VTX-2337, offering potential in a variety of cancers and complementary to numerous standard-of-care backbones.

Celgene Corp. will pay $35 million upfront under a collaboration announced Oct. 3 with VentiRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. to develop a novel, Toll-like receptor 8 (TLR8) agonist, VTX-2337, in cancer indications. The two companies will advance the compound in a pair of Phase II trials in ovarian and head-and-neck cancer over the next few years under an exclusive, worldwide partnership that also gives Celgene the option to purchase VentiRx.

In-licensed from Array BioPharma Inc. in 2007, ‘2337 is an immunotherapy that directly activates human myeloid dendritic cells, monocytes...