MacroGenics’ first commercial product, breast cancer drug Margenza, is heading off to TerSera Therapeutics through a $40 million hand-off.
With the deal, which could include an additional $35 million in sales milestones for MacroGenics, TerSera will pick up global rights to the HER2-positive breast cancer treatment. The companies expect the deal to close by the end of the year.
The agreement allows MacroGenics to “focus our efforts on advancing our pipeline of novel and differentiated oncology product candidates,” CEO Scott Koenig, Ph.D., said in a joint press release. “We believe TerSera’s established and complementary U.S. commercial infrastructure has the potential to broaden patient access to Margenza.”
TerSena, meanwhile, is “very excited” to add the product to its existing portfolio, CEO Edward Donovan said in the release.
The drug is indicated for use alongside chemotherapy to treat adults with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer who have received two or more prior therapy regimens. MacroGenics scored FDA approval for the treatment, its first commercial product, in late 2020.
The FDA's approval decision was based on a phase 3 study that pitted the drug, used alongside chemotherapy, against Roche’s Herceptin and chemotherapy. In the trial, Margenza showed it could cut the risk of disease progression or death by 24% over Roche’s treatment option in their respective chemo pairings.
Months later, overall survival results from that study revealed that the Margenza and chemotherapy combo failed to help patients live longer than those on Herceptin and chemo.
Even at the time of approval, company management warned that the drug was facing a crowded market. With the competition only increasing over the past few years, Margenza has still “not resulted in revenues sufficient for us to reach profitability,” MacroGenics said in a 2023 filing.
“Accordingly, we may never achieve or sustain profitability,” the company added.
The $40 million up-front payment represents a value more than twice the drug's total sales from last year, which came out to $17.9 million.
Elsewhere for Maryland-based MacroGenics, the company in May disclosed five deaths in a phase 2 study of its B7-H3-directed antibody-drug conjugate prostate cancer candidate. The drugmaker’s pipeline also includes potential meds for solid tumors, lung cancer and other cancer types.
TerSena’s portfolio, for its part, includes AstraZeneca’s Zoladex following a $250 million deal in 2019.