Collaborations

Exelixis extends our impact through strategic collaborations with other leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical partners who share our commitment to advancing cancer treatments so that more patients have the chance to survive and thrive.

Expanding our impact through strategic partnerships

In medicine, successful treatment regimens require an understanding of how to develop and deploy the right therapy at the right time. Exelixis has a long history of building strategic partnerships and collaborations to develop treatments that give more patients hope for the future. Our partnerships maximize the value of our approved treatments and support our experimental molecules alone and in combination with other therapeutic agents. Exelixis’ model for value creation is built upon a disciplined use of resources and our vast oncology clinical development and commercialization network. Our strategy is enhanced by our proven track record of prolific drug discovery, our aptitude for recognizing the missed potential of validated targets and our ability to focus on oncology assets that are asymmetrically valued or misunderstood.

Partner with Exelixis

Partnering is critical to progress in science and cancer care. Exelixis is building strategic business partnerships to grow our R&D pipeline to bring patients life-enhancing treatments. We seek to form oncology collaborations on clinical-stage products where there is established clinical proof of concept. To explore a partnership, please email bizdev_www@exelixis.com.

Exelixis and Adagene have a collaboration and license agreement under which Exelixis utilizes Adagene’s SAFEbody^TM to generate masked versions of monoclonal antibodies for the development of antibody-drug conjugates or other biologics. Adagene’s SAFEbody platform is designed to improve tumor-specific targeting of biologic therapies while minimizing on-target toxicity in healthy tissues.

Exelixis and Ajinomoto Co. have a license agreement to incorporate AJICAP^®, Ajinomoto Co.'s proprietary site-specific bioconjugation and linker technologies, in the development of certain of Exelixis' antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) programs. As part of the license agreement, Exelixis will have the right to use the AJICAP technology to support its aim of advancing multiple ADCs with the potential for higher efficacy and lower toxicity than currently available options.

Exelixis and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) have clinical collaboration agreements to conduct clinical studies combining cabozantinib tablets with BMS’ nivolumab and ipilimumab, as well as clinical trial collaboration and supply agreements evaluating zanzalintinib, Exelixis’ next-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor, with BMS’ fixed-dose combination of nivolumab and relatlimab in addition to nivolumab and ipilimumab in advanced solid tumors.

Exelixis and Catalent have a collaboration and license agreement under which Catalent’s Redwood Bioscience subsidiary will develop multiple antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for Exelixis using Catalent’s proprietary SMARTag^® site-specific bioconjugation technology. The companies entered a new license agreement under which Catalent’s Redwood Bioscience subsidiary granted Exelixis an exclusive license to three target programs with lead antibody and/or ADC candidates. The ADC candidates were developed using Catalent’s proprietary SMARTag^® technology, and each of the licensed antibodies have potential for development as an ADC or other biologic therapy using a variety of technologies to which Exelixis has access through its partner network.

Exelixis and Daiichi Sankyo have a collaboration agreement for the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapies targeting the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR). One of the compounds developed during this research collaboration is esaxerenone (CS-3150), an oral, non-steroidal selective blocker of the MR.

Exelixis and Insilico Medicine have an exclusive license agreement granting Exelixis global rights to develop and commercialize XL309 (formerly ISM3091), a clinical-stage small molecule inhibitor of USP1, along with other USP1-targeting compounds. Exelixis believes XL309 represents a potentially best-in-class approach to inhibiting USP1, a target with broad applicability in BRCA-mutant tumors including forms of ovarian, prostate, and breast cancer.

Exelixis and Invenra have collaboration agreements to discover and develop novel biologics to treat cancer. The agreements form a collaborative partnership enabling the two companies to pursue targets in oncology, through the use of Invenra’s antibody discovery and B-Body^® technology platform.

Exelixis and Ipsen have an exclusive licensing agreement for the commercialization and further development of cabozantinib. Ipsen is Exelixis’ global partner for cabozantinib in all geographies outside of the U.S. and Japan.

Exelixis and Merck have a clinical development collaboration to evaluate the combination of Exelixis’ investigational tyrosine kinase inhibitor zanzalintinib with Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy pembrolizumab in a phase 3 pivotal trial for the treatment of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, and zanzalintinib with belzutifan, Merck’s oral hypoxia-inducible factor-2 alpha inhibitor, in a phase 1/2 trial and two phase 3 pivotal trials for the treatment of patients with renal cell carcinoma.

Exelixis and Natera are collaborating on the planned Exelixis-sponsored STELLAR-316 trial. STELLAR-316 will evaluate zanzalintinib, with and without an immune checkpoint inhibitor, in patients with resected stage II/III colorectal cancer who, following completion of definitive therapy, have tested positive for molecular residual disease (MRD+) and have no radiographic evidence of disease. Natera will provide its Signatera™ assay to identify MRD+ patients for trial enrollment.

Exelixis and Genentech have a worldwide collaboration agreement in which Exelixis out-licensed cobimetinib, an internally discovered inhibitor of the mitogen-activated extracellular kinase (MEK) pathway. In addition to its cobimetinib partnership, Exelixis and Genentech’s parent company, Roche, entered into clinical collaboration agreements evaluating cabozantinib as well as zanzalintinib in combination with atezolizumab, Roche’s anti-PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor.

Exelixis and Ryvu Therapeutics S.A. (Ryvu) have an exclusive license agreement to develop novel targeted therapies utilizing Ryvu’s STING (STimulator of INterferon Genes) technology. Ryvu’s STING agonists have been rationally designed for differentiation from competitor compounds, and targeted delivery of STING agonist payloads from an Exelixis-developed biotherapeutic could provide a differentiated and novel mechanism of action for killing cancer cells.

Exelixis and Sairopa B.V. (Sairopa) have an exclusive clinical development and option agreement for ADU-1805, a potentially best-in-class monoclonal antibody that targets SIRPα.

Exelixis and Takeda have an exclusive license agreement for the commercialization and further development of cabozantinib in Japan.

Exelixis and WuXi Biologics (WuXi Bio) have an exclusive license agreement under which Exelixis has an exclusive license to panel of WuXi Bio’s monoclonal antibodies to a preclinically validated target, which was discovered based on WuXi Bio’s integrated technology platforms, for the development of antibody-drug conjugate, bispecific and certain other novel tumor-targeting biologics applications.

We take a focused, disciplined approach to our business development activities and collaborations – seeking partners who share our commitment to patients and bring complementary strengths and capabilities to help expand our impact and improve standards of care in oncology.

Stefan Krauss

Senior Vice President, Business Development & Alliance Management