SAN
DIEGO /PRNewswire/ -- Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.
(NASDAQ: SRNE; Sorrento), announced today that NantPharma, founded
by Dr. Patrick
Soon-Shiong and a member of the NantWorks ecosystem of
companies, agreed to acquire the rights to Cynviloq through the
acquisition of Igdrasol, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Sorrento, which has been developing Cynviloq (paclitaxel
nanoparticle polymeric micelle) in a bio-equivalence trial. Dr.
Soon-Shiong was the founder of Abraxis BioScience and inventor and
developer of the blockbuster drug Abraxane® (albumin-bound
paclitaxel), currently approved for the treatment of breast, lung,
and pancreatic cancers. Under the terms of the agreement, Sorrento
will receive more than $90
million in an up-front cash payment plus the potential
for more than $600
million in regulatory and $600
million in sales milestone payments. Sorrento will also
receive additional transfer pricing payments from total unit sales.
Furthermore, Sorrento has the option to co-develop and/or co-market
Cynviloq on terms to be negotiated.
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"We
are extremely pleased with the recent Cynviloq TRIBECA™ study
results and excited that Dr. Patrick
Soon-Shiong and his NantPharma team plan to expand
Cynviloq into multiple cancer indications, as well as combine it
with immunomodulatory antibodies and cell therapies from Sorrento's
pipeline," said Dr. Henry
Ji, President and CEO. "This major transaction will enhance
Sorrento's mission of bringing innovative therapies to patients in
need quickly and efficiently. It puts our lead program into the
hands of a team that has the experience, commitment and resources
to develop and launch a major cancer drug. This transaction not
only validates our prior Igdrasol acquisition, it also delivers
significant financial return, while potentially offering much more
in the long run to our shareholders. Moving forward, Sorrento plans
to focus on truly innovative immuno-oncology and cellular therapies
and position us as the leader in the emerging immunotherapy
space."
"Precision cancer medicine will require a multi-faceted treatment
approach involving chemotherapy, immunotherapy, adoptive cellular
therapy and next-generation precision medicine technologies,
including such as genomics and proteomics diagnostics which
NantWorks is developing," said Dr. Soon-Shiong. "We are committing
significant resources to the development of novel cancer therapies,
including combination therapies, an area of significant unmet need.
Chemotherapy is an important pillar to the combination with
immunotherapy and natural killer cells, and the opportunity to
develop combination regimens of low-dose metronomic use of this
active drug is an important step in transforming cancer care as we
know it today."
About Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.
Sorrento is an oncology company developing new treatments for
cancer and associated pain. In addition to Cynviloq, Sorrento
has clinical stage asset resiniferatoxin, a non-opiate TRPV1
agonist currently in a Phase 1/2 study at the NIH to treat terminal
cancer patients suffering from intractable pain.
In December
2014, Sorrento and NantWorks formed a global joint venture,
called NANTibody, to focus on immunotherapies for cancer. Also
in December
2014, Sorrento and Conkwest, Inc., a privately-held
immuno-oncology company developing proprietary Neukoplast®, a
Natural Killer (NK) cell-line based therapy, entered into an
agreement to jointly develop CAR.TNK™ (Chimeric Antigen Receptor
Tumor-attacking Neukoplast) immunotherapies for the treatment of
cancer and infectious diseases. In March
2015, Sorrento entered into a global collaboration with
NantCell, a NantWorks company, to discover and develop
immunotherapies against tumor neo-epitopes.
About NantWorks
NantWorks, LLC, founded by renowned physician scientist and
inventor of the first human nanoparticle chemotherapeutic agent
Abraxane®, Dr. Patrick
Soon-Shiong, is the umbrella organization for the following
entities: NantHealth, NantMobile, NantMedia, NantOmics,
NantBioScience, NantCell, NantPharma, NantCapital and NantCloud.
Fact-based and solution-driven, each of NantWorks' division
entities operates at the nexus of innovation and infrastructure.
The core mission of NantWorks is convergence: to develop and
deliver a diverse range of technologies that accelerates
innovation, broadens the scope of scientific discovery, enhances
groundbreaking research, and improves healthcare treatment for
those in need. NantWorks is building an integrated fact-based,
genomically-informed, personalized approach to the delivery of care
and the development of next generation diagnostics and
therapeutics.
Forward-Looking Statements
This
press release contains forward-looking statements related to
Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. under the safe harbor provisions of
Section 21E of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
and subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those projected. Forward-looking
statements include statements about whether Sorrento will receive
any or all of the milestone, profit share or other payments under
the agreement with NantPharma; whether Cynviloq may be approved by
the FDA; and the potential for co-development or co-marketing that
may be agreed pursuant to the agreement with NantPharma; and other
matters that are described in Sorrento's Annual Report on Form 10-K
for the year ended December 31,
2014, and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risk
factors set forth in those filings. Investors are cautioned not to
place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which
speak only as of the date of this release and we undertake no
obligation to update any forward-looking statement in this press
release except as required by law.
Cynviloq™, TRIBECA™, CAR.TNK™ and the Sorrento logo are trademarks
owned by Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.
All
other trademarks and trade names are the property of their
owners.