Pharmaceutical firm Pfizer made an equity investment of undisclosed size in Germany-based immunotherapy developer Biontech yesterday through a multi-year research and development collaboration worth up to $425m altogether.
The agreement concerns the development of flu vaccines. Biontech will get a total of $120m in upfront, equity and near-term research funding and up to $305m more if it reaches certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones, as well as double-digit tiered royalty payments on global sales.
Spun out of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in 2008, Biontech focuses on personalised immunotherapies for cancer and infectious diseases.
Biontech’s existing partners include life science technology producers Genentech, Genmab, Sanofi, Bayer Animal Health and Eli Lilly, the latter deal having signed a cancer research partnership in 2015 that could be worth up to $360m for the smaller company.
The Pfizer collaboration is intended to create vaccines for the prevention of influenza that will be based on messenger RNA, molecules that carry a portion of the DNA code to other parts of the cell for processing.
The companies will jointly conduct research and development activities, with Biontech overseeing a first clinical trial in humans before Pfizer takes over responsibility for clinical development and commercialisation.
Biontech raised $270m in a January 2018 series A round led by Redmile Group that included financial services conglomerate Fidelity Management and Research, Janus Henderson Investors, Invus and several family offices including the Strüngmann Family Office.
The 2018 round came 10 years after Biontech received an undisclosed amount of seed capital from MIG Fonds and Strüngmann. Medical device maker Salvia is also a Biontech shareholder, though details of its investment could not be ascertained.