Pursuant to a series of licensing arrangements commencing in May 1999, we obtained exclusive worldwide rights to Amgen’s patent estate relating to antibodies to IL15, a promising target in the area of inflammation, and the IL15 receptor, which is found on a number of tumor types. In October 2001, this sub-licensing arrangement was replaced by a direct license from Amgen. Amgen retained an exclusive commercialization option for the products through Phase II. In July 2003, Amgen exercised its commercialization options for both the HuMax-IL15™ antibody program (now AMG 714) and the IL15 receptor program. In addition, Amgen has expanded its agreement with Genmab to include a new antibody program on an additional disease target.

Under the terms of the expanded and amended agreement, if products to all three targets are successfully commercialized and certain sales levels are achieved, Genmab will be entitled to receive up to USD 135.5 million in license fees and milestone payments. Genmab is also entitled to royalties on commercial sales instead of the profit sharing designated in the original agreement. In connection with the option exercise, Genmab received the first milestone payment of USD 10 million for products targeting the IL15 pathway. Amgen will be responsible for all future development costs for products targeting the IL15 pathway and Genmab will participate in the pre-clinical development of the new program. In September 2003, Genmab achieved the second milestone by delivering a human antibody targeting the IL15 receptor. The milestone released a USD 500,000 payment to Genmab from Amgen.

Amgen has informed Genmab that it would discontinue development of AMG 714 in psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis based on disappointing results from recent clinical studies.  Amgen is exploring options to maximize the value of this asset, but at this time, no further internal development of a lead indication is planned.

In May 2002, we entered into a collaboration with ACE BioSciences, a privately owned company based in Denmark, to develop new antibody products to treat infectious disease. In November 2003, Genmab and ACE BioSciences announced plans to develop an antibody therapeutic product with the potential to treat fungal infections. The antibody will be directed against a novel target on Aspergillus fumigatus. This fungus can cause life threatening infections in patients whose immune systems are compromised, for example, cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. Genmab and ACE BioSciences will collaborate on the research, development and commercialization of the new antibody products and will share development costs and revenues generated from out-licensing or sales of these products equally.

In February 2006, we acquired exclusive worldwide rights to develop therapeutics based upon a series of angiogenesis targets identified by Bionomics, an ASX listed biotechnology company based in Australia.  Under the terms of the deal, Bionomics receives an upfront fee and additional fees upon the first target achieving specified preclinical and clinical milestones.  Bionomics will also receive milestone payments and royalties on product sales for each product that reaches the market.  The agreement is the outcome of an earlier collaboration to create and develop fully human antibodies to angiogenesis targets identified by Bionomics.

In November 2006, Genmab licensed rights to the MIF receptor target from Cytokine PharmaSciences. Genmab intends to develop therapeutic human antibodies to the target. Details of the agreement have not been disclosed.

In December 2006, Genmab announced a worldwide agreement with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to co-develop and commercialize ofatumumab (HuMax-CD20®).   Ofatumumab is in late stage development for CD20 positive B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and is in Phase II front line studies for CLL and NHL. Furthermore, Phase II studies in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) are ongoing.

Under the terms of the agreement, Genmab received a license fee of DKK 582 million (approx. $102 million), and GSK invested DKK 2,033 million (approx. $357 million) to purchase 4,471,202 ordinary shares of Genmab. The total potential value of this agreement, in the event of full commercial success, in cancer and various autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, could exceed DKK 12.0 billion (approx. $2.1 billion), including the initial license fee and equity purchase, milestone payments, totaling DKK 9.0 billion (approx. $1.6 billion) and expected development, commercial manufacturing and commercialization costs.

In addition, Genmab will be entitled to receive tiered double digit royalties on global sales of ofatumumab.

GSK will receive an exclusive worldwide license to ofatumumab as well as any other antibodies with affinity for the CD20 antigen which Genmab may develop. GSK will also have an exclusive option to a CD20 UniBody® to be developed in collaboration with Genmab. GSK and Genmab will co-develop ofatumumab. Genmab will be responsible for development costs until 2008, including costs of the two ongoing late stage oncology studies, after which development costs will be shared equally between GSK and Genmab. GSK will be solely responsible for the manufacturing and commercialization of ofatumumab.

Genmab will have an option to co-promote ofatumumab in a targeted oncology setting in the US and in the Nordic region. Should this be undertaken, Genmab will also have the option to co-promote Bexxar™ and Arranon™ in the US and Atriance™ in the relevant countries of the Nordic region. 

Genmab has achieved five milestone payments under the collaboration with GSK. In June 2007, Genmab achieved the first milestone for positive results in the Phase II RA study, triggering a payment of DKK 116 million (approximately USD 21 million) from GSK. Genmab achieved the second milestone under the collaboration in December 2007 when the first patient was treated in the Phase II DLBCL study, triggering a milestone of DKK 87 million (approximately USD 18 million) to Genmab. In January 2008, Genmab reached the third milestone payment of DKK 87 million (approximately USD 18 million). The milestone was triggered by the first patient receiving treatment in the Phase III RA program.  The fourth milestone payment of DKK 29 million (approximately USD 6 million) was triggered by treatment of the first patient in the Phase II study for RRMS in June 2008.  In August 2008, a fifth milestone payment of DKK 232.7 million (approximately USD 48.5 million) was triggered by the achievement of positive results in the ofatumumab Phase III CLL study.  To date, Genmab has received an approximate total of DKK 552 million (approximately USD 110 million) in milestone payments under the GSK collaboration.   

Genmab has a unique alliance with Medarex that gives us access to the UltiMAb® system for creating the full range of human antibody isotypes. Under this agreement, Genmab has the right to obtain licenses for an unlimited number of antibodies and owns the worldwide development and commercialization rights to these products. Genmab’s principal obligation under this agreement is to make royalty payments in connection with any such product licenses. Genmab received these rights in exchange for stock in the company, and we also received 16 fully paid up product licenses, which require no further payments to Medarex.

In addition, in June 2001, we entered into a collaboration with Medarex to develop a human antibody to treat inflammation, HuMax-Inflam™ (now called HuMax-IL8™).  In an asset exchange agreement in September 2007, Genmab gained full rights to HuMax-IL8.

In May 2001, we entered into a collaboration with Roche to develop human antibodies to disease targets identified by Roche for the entire Roche organization. Under this collaboration, we could receive milestones, license fees as well as royalty payments on commercial sales. In certain circumstances, we could obtain rights to develop products based on disease targets identified by Roche.

In 2002, we expanded our alliance with Roche, and Roche made an equity investment in Genmab totalling USD 20 million at a price of DKK 180 per share. At the time, Roche announced plans to identify 15 new antibody programs on top of the four programs that were already ongoing under the direction of the joint Roche-Genmab Research Committee. Under the current agreement, Genmab will receive milestones as well as royalty payments on successful products and in certain circumstances Genmab could obtain rights to develop products based on disease targets identified by Roche. If all goals are reached, the value of the collaboration to Genmab could be as high as USD 100 million plus royalties. In 2004, Roche selected clinical candidates for four targets, each targeting a different area. Roche has filed three Investigational New Drug applications with the US FDA and a clinical trial application with the British regulatory authorities for four Genmab antibodies developed under the collaboration, marking a total of twelve milestones achieved under the agreement and triggering milestone payments to Genmab.

The disease targets for the antibody programs developed between Roche and Genmab were announced in December 2006. These include inflammation, oncology, respiratory and vascular diseases. Three of the antibodies are in Phase I development and one is in Phase II. The development of one of the programs is carried out in collaboration with Genentech, where Roche owns a majority stake.