Jazz Pharmaceuticals inks $4bn cancer collab with Peter Thiel’s biotech project AbCellera

The companies said the preclinical research collaboration, option and license agreement will discover and develop next-generation T-cell engaging (TCE) multispecific antibodies. Involving up to five drug candidates, this could be the largest such deal struck by Jazz, and will be based around AbCellera’s antibody discovery technology. The partnership will work on optimised development candidates for multiple gastrointestinal (GI) cancers and other solid tumours.

AbCellera’s T-cell engager platform develops multispecific TCEs for difficult-to-treat cancers, from discovery to clinical manufacturing stages. The platform includes novel and proprietary panels of CD3-binding antibodies, costimulatory targeting arms, multispecific protein engineering technology, and a suite of high-throughput functional assays.

Under the terms of the agreement, AbCellera will perform discovery and early-stage research activities for two initial programmes with a commitment to start a third discovery programme within 12 months. Jazz has an option on each research programme and, following exercise of its option and payment of an option fee, will have the exclusive, worldwide right to develop and market each drug.

AbCellera will receive $56 million in total upfront payments for the first two research programs plus an additional $28 million due upon initiation of the third program. Should Jazz exercise its option for development, AbCellera is eligible to receive up to $792 million per programme in option fees and development, regulatory, and commercial sales milestone payments along with tiered royalties on net sales ranging from mid-single digits to low double-digits. In addition, Jazz and AbCellera may mutually agree to initiate up to two additional programmes. AbCellera may begin preclinical studies and manufacturing for clinical supply, for any drug developed under the collaboration.

Jazz’s shares still down after Friday trial failure

Jazz’s shares ticked up to nearly $227.5 following the news, although they are still well down on their recent peak of $236.17 on Friday 12 June. They fell sharply on that day after Jazz announced its Zepcelca (lurbinectedin) had failed in a Phase 3 trial in patients with relapsed (second-line) metastatic small cell lung cancer (SCLC).

The trial failure means an uncertain future for Zepcelca in this indication. It has been marketed in the US in the second line SCLC indication after platinum-based therapy since 2020 on the basis of an FDA accelerated approval. This required confirmatory Phase 3 data after a conditional approval on the basis of a single-arm trial with 105 adults.

However Jazz does have other products on the market, such as Xywav (calcium oxybate/magnesium oxybate/potassium oxybate/sodium oxybate), a blockbuster therapy for idiopathic insomnia.

In the last few years, Jazz expanded its oncology pipeline through licensing agreements and acquisitions, including the global rights to Zymeworks’ zanidatamab (a HER2-targeted cancer therapy) and the acquisition of Chimerix in 2025. This followed its $7.2 billion acquisition of UK-based GW Pharmaceuticals, which added the blockbuster childhood epilepsy drug Epidiolex/Epidyolex (cannabidiol) to its portfolio of approved medicines.

AbCellera soldiers on as Thiel’s influence wanes

AbCellera’s shares were up nearly 12% to US$5.7 following the news, underscoring its status as a survivor from the COVID IPO boom. With strong financial backing AbCellera has managed to stay listed and continue operating after many of the COVID biotech IPOs delisted, went private, or liquidated.

Founded in 2012 as a spinout from the University of British Columbia AbCellera was one of the many biotechs that went public during the COVID biotech boom of 2020. It attracted investment from billionaire investor Peter Thiel in its US$105 million Series B financing round in May 2020.

Thiel, who has close links with the Trump administration through his defence software firm Palantir, joined the AbCellera board in November 2020. This was just ahead of the company’s US$483 million IPO in December 2020, and Thiel went on to chair its Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.

Although he stepped back from the company’s board in 2024 for undisclosed personal reasons, Thiel still retains a stake in AbCellera, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Since its IPO, AbCellera has pivoted its business model from being strictly a discovery partner to developing its own internal therapeutic pipeline. By 2026, its leading internal drug candidates included ABCL635, in Phase 2 clinical trials for vasomotor symptoms, and ABCL575, in Phase 1 trials for T-cell-mediated autoimmune disorders.