The Life Sciences team advised Codiak BioSciences, Inc. on its strategic collaboration agreement with Jazz Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: JAZZ) to focus on the research, development and commercialization of exosome therapeutics to treat cancer. Codiak granted Jazz an exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing license to develop, manufacture and commercialize therapeutic candidates directed at five targets to be developed using Codiak's engEx™ precision engineering platform for exosome therapeutics. Exosomes are naturally occurring, nanometer-sized vesicles that are released and received by nearly all cells in the body. They serve as an efficient system of intercellular communication.
As part of the agreement, Jazz will pay Codiak an upfront payment of $56 million. Codiak is eligible to receive up to $20 million in preclinical development milestone payments across all five programs. Codiak is also eligible to receive milestone payments totaling up to $200 million per target based on Investigational New Drug application acceptance, clinical and regulatory milestones, including approvals in the U.S., European Union and Japan, and sales milestones. Codiak is also eligible to receive tiered royalties on net sales of each approved product, with percentages ranging from mid-single digits in the lowest tier to high teens in the highest tier.
Codiak BioSciences is the leader in the emerging field of exosome therapeutics. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Codiak has built a proprietary technology platform for exosome engineering and manufacturing that allows for precise therapeutic targeting — opening the door to the development of therapies to treat a diverse array of diseases that are currently difficult or impossible to treat using existing methodologies.
The Goodwin team was led by partner Christopher Denn.