Pharma BD Deal Intelligence
AbbVie and EvolveImmune partner to develop multispecific cancer biotherapeutics; discovery-stage platform with no disclosed clinical candidates yet
AbbVie and EvolveImmune strike deal to develop biotherapeutics for resistant cancer cells.
$18 million milestone payment to EvolveImmune triggered by nomination of a development candidate targeting a solid tumor under the AbbVie collaboration; first…
Source summaries from our enrichment pipeline; follow links for originals.
All 7 sources with sentiment breakdown →
On October 31, 2024, AbbVie entered a multi-year discovery collaboration and option-to-license agreement with privately held EvolveImmune Therapeutics to develop next-generation, multispecific T-cell engager biotherapeutics for solid and hematologic malignancies. EvolveImmune received $65 million in aggregate upfront fees and equity investment from AbbVie and is eligible for up to $1.4 billion in aggregate option fees and milestones, plus tiered royalties on net sales. The partnership leverages EvolveImmune's proprietary EVOLVE platform, which incorporates integrated T-cell co-stimulation designed to amplify and sustain tumor-killing capacity against immunologically 'cold' tumors. On April 28, 2026, the collaboration reached its first development milestone: the nomination of a development candidate against a solid-tumor target — the first program from the partnership to reach candidate selection — triggering an $18 million milestone payment to EvolveImmune. Separately, EvolveImmune is advancing its wholly owned lead asset EVOLVE104 (a trispecific T-cell engager) into a Phase 1a/1b trial following FDA IND clearance in August 2025.
| Deal | Year | Value | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| AbbVie Inc. / EvolveImmune Therapeutics Inc. (this deal) | 2024 | $1.5B | 59 |
| AbbVie Inc. / Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH | 2016 | $2.2B | 95 |
| AbbVie Inc. / Genmab A/S | 2020 | $3.9B | 81 |
| AbbVie Inc. / Pharmacyclics Inc. | 2015 | $21.0B | 79 |
| AbbVie Inc. / Apogee Therapeutics, Inc. | 2026 | $10.9B | 72 |
| AbbVie Inc. / ImmunoGen Inc. | 2023 | $10.1B | 69 |
| AbbVie Inc. / Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 2024 | $2.0B | 64 |
← Browse all deals · How we score deals
More: 2024 deals · AbbVie Inc. deals · Oncology deals