French firm Innate Pharma has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda under which Innate grants Takeda exclusive worldwide rights to research and develop antibody drug conjugates (ADC) using a panel of selected Innate antibodies against an undisclosed target, with a primary focus on Celiac disease, a serious autoimmune disease where the ingestion of gluten leads to inflammation and damage to the small intestine.

Takeda will be responsible for the future development, manufacture and commercialisation of any potential products developed using the licensed antibodies.

Yannis Morel, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Product portfolio strategy & Business development at Innate Pharma said, “This agreement expands the application of Innate’s science beyond our oncology focus and demonstrates how our antibody engineering expertise can play a major role in developing Antibody Drug Conjugate formats. Our antibody platform has the broad ability to contribute to modalities not only via NK Cell Engagers through our ANKET technology but also with Antibody Drug Conjugates.”

Under the terms of the license agreement, Innate will receive a $5 million upfront payment and is eligible to receive up to $410 million in future development, regulatory and commercial milestones if all milestones are achieved during the term of the agreement, plus royalties on potential net sales of any commercial product resulting from the license.