ImmunoGen, Inc, a biotechnology company that develops targeted anticancer products, announced that Bayer HealthCare has licensed exclusive worldwide rights to use ImmunoGen's Tumour-Activated Prodrug (TAP) technology to develop anticancer compounds to an undisclosed target found on solid tumours.

Under the terms of the collaboration, Bayer HealthCare receives exclusive worldwide rights to develop anticancer compounds to the target using ImmunoGen's maytansinoid cell-killing agents and linker technology. Bayer HealthCare is responsible for the research, development, manufacturing and marketing of products resulting from this license.

ImmunoGen will receive an upfront payment of $4 million. For each compound developed and marketed by Bayer under this collaboration, ImmunoGen is entitled to milestone payments potentially totalling $170.5 million plus royalties on commercial sales. ImmunoGen also is entitled to receive financial compensation for the production of any preclinical and non-pivotal clinical materials and for any product development research done on behalf of Bayer HealthCare.

"We're delighted to have Bayer as a collaborator and look forward to working with them to achieve better therapeutic options for cancer patients," commented Daniel Junius, president and chief operating officer. "Our collaborators now include Amgen, Bayer HealthCare, Biogen Idec, Biotest, Genentech and sanofi-aventis - an array of US and international biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms."

ImmunoGen created its TAP technology to markedly enhance the anticancer activity of manufactured proteins - monoclonal antibodies - that can selectively bind to cancer targets while maintaining their favourable tolerability profile. The company's cell-killing agents are highly potent and can be affixed to such proteins using ImmunoGen linkers, which keep the agent attached and inactive until the TAP compound has bound to and entered a cancer cell. There, the cell-killing agent releases to kill the cancer cell. ImmunoGen's TAP technology is the only activity-enhancing antibody technology to have shown efficacy in patients whose cancer progressed on treatment with the unmodified version of the antibody.