AbbVie Inc is to pay an upfront fee and potential milestone payments of up to $1.055 billion to Simcere Zaiming of China for an option to license a candidate drug for multiple myeloma. The asset is a trispecific antibody that is currently in Phase 1 studies in patients with relapsed or refractory myeloma in both China and the US. The antibody has a CD3 engaging arm and binding sites for two tumour antigens. These are G-protein coupled receptor class 5 member D (GPRC5D) and the B cell maturation antigen.
