Arcus Biosciences Announces That Taiho Pharmaceutical Has Exercised Its Option to Develop and Commercialize AB928 in Its Territories

Arcus Biosciences (NYSE:RCUS), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on creating innovative cancer immunotherapies, today announced that Taiho Pharmaceutical exercised its option under the Option and License Agreement entered into in September 2017 to obtain an exclusive development and commercialization license to the Company’s adenosine receptor antagonist program, which includes AB928 and back-up compounds, in Japan and certain other territories in Asia (excluding China).

As quoted in the press release:

“We are pleased that Taiho has decided to exercise their option just as we are initiating our Phase 1/1b program for AB928 in the U.S. and Australia,” said Terry Rosen, Ph.D., CEO at Arcus. “We believe that Taiho’s decision to exercise their option to this program at this early stage reflects their recognition that AB928, the first adenosine 2 receptor antagonist in clinical development to be specifically designed for the oncology setting, has significant potential to treat a broad array of tumor types. We are confident that Taiho’s expertise and capabilities in oncology, as well as their experience co-promoting Keytruda® in Japan, make them the ideal partner to bring AB928 to cancer patients as quickly as possible in their territories.”

“Our collaboration with Arcus is an important relationship for Taiho, as we expand our oncology franchise in Japan and other important territories in Asia,” said Masayuki Kobayashi, President and Representative Director at Taiho. “We have been impressed by Arcus’s small molecule drug discovery capabilities, the quality of their clinical candidates and the scientific rigor of their candidate selection process. AB928 appears to have the ideal properties to block the immuno-suppressive effects of adenosine in the tumor microenvironment. We look forward to working with Arcus on the development of this important new immuno-oncology mechanism for the treatment of multiple tumor types.”

Click here to read the full press release.