Alpine Immune Sciences stock rose more than 10% Friday after the Seattle-based biotech company inked a $60 million licensing deal with pharmaceutical giant AbbVie for its lupus drug.
AbbVie could pay up to $805 million if certain milestones are reached with development of ALPN-101, a phase-2 therapeutic aimed at helping treat lupus, an autoimmune disease affecting 1.5 million Americans.
“AbbVie is an ideal partner for ALPN-101, with the therapeutic area expertise, R&D commitment, and global resources needed to maximize ALPN-101’s potential for patients suffering from autoimmune disease,” Alpine CEO Mitchell Gold said in a statement.
Alpine launched in 2015 and went public in 2017 after a reverse merger with Nivalis in 2017. It’s one of several immunotherapy-related companies in the Seattle region.
Gold was the CEO of the now-defunct biotech startup Dendreon as well as the founder of a health-care investment firm called Alpine BioVenture
