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Astellas and Vir Biotechnology Announce Global Strategic Collaboration to Advance PSMA-targeting PRO-XTEN® Dual-masked T-Cell Engager VIR-5500 for the Treatment of Prostate Cancer
- Astellas and Vir Biotechnology to co-develop and co-commercialize VIR-5500 through a sharing of expenses and revenues -- Astellas to lead commercialization
About this update from Vir Biotechnology, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"- Astellas and Vir Biotechnology to co-develop and co-commercialize VIR-5500 through a sharing of expenses and revenues -- Astellas to lead commercialization of VIR-5500 in the U.S. with Vir Biotechnology retaining option to co-promote, and Astellas will obtain exclusive rights to commercialize VIR-5500 ex-U.S. -- Vir Biotechnology will receive $335M in upfront and near-term milestone payments, will split U.S. profit/loss equally with Astellas (50/50), and is eligible to receive up to an additional $1.37B in development, regulatory and sales milestones, along with tiered, double-digit royalties on ex-U.S. net sales - - Vir Biotechnology to host conference call today at 2:30 p.m. PT / 5:30 p.m. ET -TOKYO and SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Astellas Pharma Inc. (TSE: 4503, President and CEO: Naoki Okamura, \"Astellas\") and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. (Nasdaq: VIR) today announced they have entered into a global strategic collaboration to advance VIR-5500, an investigational PRO-XTEN® dual-masked CD3 T-cell engager (TCE) targeting PSMA for the treatment of prostate cancer. The collaboration aims to accelerate the development of VIR-5500 and further strengthen Astellas' oncology pipeline and prostate cancer leadership.\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \nAdam Pearson, Chief Strategy Officer, Astellas\"Astellas is proud to have helped 1.5 million patients with prostate cancer, and we are dedicated to expanding our impact as part of our R&D strategy. Our deep expertise in this disease area, combined with a growing immuno-oncology (IO) pipeline of biologics, including T-cell engagers, uniquely positions us to help advance VIR-5500, a potentially best-in-class T-cell engager for prostate cancer. This strategic collaboration allows Astellas and Vir Biotechnology to combine our expertise and reaffirms our commitment to improving the lives of people with prostate cancer.\"Marianne De Backer, M.Sc., Ph.D., MBA, Chief Executive Officer, Vir Biotechnology\"Astellas is an ideal collaborator for the VIR-5500 program given the company's successful track record advancing therapies across the treatment continuum, building blockbuster franchises and delivering value to patients through strategic development alliances with other biotech partners. This collaboration will enable more rapid advancement of VIR-5500 to potentially benefit more people living ...