Incyte, MacroGenics pen cancer deal

Incyte will pay $150 million up front for global rights to MacroGenics’s MGA012, a PD-1 inhibitor in Phase I studies. MGA012 belongs to a class of cancer immunotherapies called checkpoint inhibitors, antibodies that take the brakes off the immune system so it can find and kill cancer cells. Incyte has a complementary drug, a small molecule that blocks the enzyme IDO1, being tested in combination with myriad competitors’ PD-1 inhibitors. The deal will give Incyte its own PD-1 inhibitor, albeit one that significantly trails competitors. Merck & Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb both have PD-1 inhibitors on the market, and multiple companies have checkpoint inhibitors in mid- or late-stage clinical studies.