A $300 million worldwide licensing agreement announced last week between Immunomic Therapeutics and Astellas Pharma to develop treatment for a wide range of allergic diseases, including peanut allergies, is the largest deal ever to come out of Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, the patent, licensing, and technology commercialization arm of the university.
The agreement, first announced Thursday night, centers on the LAMP-vax technology, which was originally developed by Thomas August, Drew Pardoll, and others at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and licensed in 2006 to Immunomic Therapeutics, a biotech company based in Hershey, Pennsylvania.