BioNTech SE and Crescendo Biologics Ltd. announced that they have entered a multi-target discovery collaboration to develop novel immunotherapies for the treatment of patients with cancer and other diseases. The initial term of the discovery collaboration is three years. Crescendo will contribute its unique, proprietary, transgenic platform to deliver fully human heavy-chain antibody domains (Humabody® VH) against targets nominated by BioNTech.

Humabodies represent a novel class of therapeutics that retain the high-affinity binding and specificity of conventional therapeutic antibodies while providing additional advantages such as small size, enhanced tissue and tumor penetration, stability and molecular simplicity due to the lack of a light chain. In particular, the modular nature of Humabodies make them ideally suited for the development of multi-target immunotherapies. Under the terms of the agreement, Crescendo will receive $40 million upfront, including a cash payment and an equity investment from BioNTech, as well as research funding for the period of the collaboration.

BioNTech will be responsible for global development and hold exclusive worldwide commercialization rights on any products arising from the collaboration. Crescendo will be eligible to receive development, regulatory and commercial milestones up to a total of more than $750 million, in addition to tiered royalties on global net sales.