The oncolytic immunotherapy of Amgen yields unusually brilliant results this year. After it was approved by FDA in October, Imlygic was approved again in Europe last week. Now it becomes the first oncolytic immunotherapy that has been approved both in USA and Europe. The following luck has brought much sweetness to Amgen.

So Amgen recently decided to acquire new oncolytic virus therapeutics to further expand its pipeline of tumor immunotherapy.

It is said that Amgen will pay $ 10.5 million upfront to acquire the oncolytic immunotherapy of Catherex. Catherex is a company that specializes in virus oncolytic immunotherapy, and it got separated from Germany’s Medigene in 2010. Now Medigene still holds 40% equity of Catherex .

Besides the upfront, Amgen also promised to pay Catherex corresponding milestone money and the sales royalties of Amgen’s own oncolytic therapy Imlygic. Accordingly, Amgen will acquire all patent of Catherex’s oncolytic therapies. It is a kind of genetically engineered herpes simplex virus that can invade the tumor cells, and act as killing effect. This cooperation is expected to be completed early next year.