- Nano cap (NASDAQ:XOMA) zooms up 62% premarket on robust volume in response to its announcement that it has exclusively licensed global development and commercialization rights to its anti-transforming growth factor-beta (TGFb) antibody program to Novartis (NVS).
- Under the terms of the agreement, XOMA will receive an upfront payment of $37M, up to $480M in various milestones and mid-single-digit to low double-digit royalties on net sales. Novartis also agrees to extend the maturity date of the XOMA's ~$13.5M in outstanding debt to September 20, 2020. In exchange for the extension, XOMA agrees to reduce the royalties it will earn from Novartis' clinical stage anti-CD40 antibodies.
- XOMA says the funds from this deal, along with its planned cost saving measures, will be sufficient to fund operations into 2017.
- TGFb is an immune suppressive cytokine that plays a role in the progression of advanced cancer and fibrosis if elevated.