Amgen to Help Develop Autoimmune Drugs

Amgen Inc. and EVOQ Therapeutics on Wednesday announced they have entered into a license and collaboration agreement to develop drugs for autoimmune disorders.According to collaboration terms, the Thousand Oaks biotech giant will make upfront and milestone payments to Michigan-based, privately held EVOQ totaling more than $240 million. Amgen will also pay EVOQ royalties on therapy sales.EVOQ will work with Amgen on preclinical development of autoimmune disorder drugs while Amgen plans to head clinical development and commercialization, the companies said in a statement.The small cancer immunotherapy company of 10 employees was founded in 2016 by William Brinkeroff and Drs. James Moon and Anna Schwendeman, who now serve as chief executive, chief scientific officer and vice president of preclinical development for the company, respectively.Shares of Amgen (AMGN) closed up $1.15, or a fraction of 1 percent, to $237.74 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday, a day when the overall Nasdaq likewise was up a fraction of 1 percent.