Ipsen has reached an agreement to buy fellow French firm ImCheck Therapeutics in a deal that could be worth up to €1 billion ($1.16 billion), adding an antibody-based therapy for acute myeloid leukaemia to its oncology pipeline.
The deal includes an upfront payment of €350 million, with the remainder of the sum tied to potential regulatory approvals and sales-based achievements for the antibody, called ICT01, which has shown promise in an ongoing phase 1/2 AML trial.
ICT01 targets BTN3A, which Ipsen said is a key immune-regulatory molecule broadly expressed across cancer, and has orphan drug designations from the FDA and EMA. The drug has the potential to be a new standard of care in combination with other drugs as a frontline treatment for AML patients who are too frail to tolerate intensive chemotherapy.
Initial clinical results from the open-label EVICTION trial of the potentially first-in-class drug, given in a combination regimen with AbbVie/Roche’s Venclexta (venetoclax) and azacitidine, were presented at this year’s ASCO cancer congress and showed a 74% complete response rate – nearly twice the historical standard – with 83% of patients surviving at least nine months.
Many AML patients are unable to tolerate intensive chemotherapy and must rely on lower-intensity options, which often deliver limited and short-lived benefit, said Ipsen.
After the ASCO presentation, ImCheck said its near-term plan was to advance ICT01 into a phase 2 trial in AML and expand testing of the antibody into myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and solid tumours, objectives which should speed up if Ipsen completes the takeover.
Ipsen said it would start a phase 2b/3 trial next year if the deal goes through as expected in the first quarter of 2026.
This is the latest in a string of cancer-focused deals for Ipsen, coming after it licensed T-cell engager (TCE) therapies from Biomunex Pharma and Marengo Therapeutics last year in deals valued at up to $610 million and $1.6 billion, respectively.
Last year also saw it add to its cancer pipeline with two antibody-drug conjugate alliances – with Foreseen Bio and Sutro Biopharma – and acquire rights outside the US to Day One Biopharma‘s brain cancer therapy Ojemda (tovorafenib).
Oncology accounted for Ipsen’s €1.91 billion of its €2.73 billion in total sales for the first nine months of the year. The company’s chief executive, David Loew, said that the ImCheck acquisition “presents an opportunity for us to expand our pipeline in oncology and reinforces our commitment to deliver transformative therapies to the people who need them most.”
