Aduro Biotech Receives Milestone Payment From Janssen Pharmaceutical For Submission Of Investigational New Drug Application For ADU-741 In Prostate Cancer

BERKELEY, Calif., Nov. 18, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aduro Biotech, Inc. (Nasdaq:ADRO) today announced that it has received a milestone payment from Janssen Biotech, Inc. for Aduro’s submission of an Investigational New Drug (IND) Application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for ADU-741, a LADD immunotherapy product candidate for the treatment of prostate cancer. The IND will enable Janssen, Aduro’s license partner for ADU-741, to initiate a multi-center Phase 1 trial to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of intravenous administration of ADU-741 in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

“We are very pleased with our productive partnerships with Janssen,” said Stephen T. Isaacs, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Aduro. “ADU-741 for prostate cancer is the second LADD-based therapy that Janssen plans to advance into the clinic, in addition to ADU-214 for lung cancer. We believe this further validates the power of combining our innovative LADD technology platform with Janssen’s expertise in oncology clinical development. We look forward to continued development of these compounds in collaboration with Janssen, while at the same time, progressing our internal pipeline of immuno-oncology therapeutics toward commercialization.”

In May 2014, Aduro entered into an agreement granting Janssen an exclusive, worldwide license to certain product candidates specifically engineered for the treatment of prostate cancer based on Aduro’s novel LADD immunotherapy platform. Under the agreement facilitated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Aduro received an upfront payment, milestone payments associated with submission of the IND, and is eligible to receive future development, regulatory and commercialization milestone payments up to a potential total of $346 million as well as royalties on worldwide net sales upon successful launch and commercialization.

About LADD

LADD is Aduro’s proprietary platform of live-attenuated double-deleted Listeria monocytogenes strains that have been engineered to induce a potent innate immune response and to express tumor-associated antigens to induce tumor-specific T cell-mediated immunity.

About Aduro

Aduro Biotech, Inc. is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of therapies that transform the treatment of challenging diseases. Aduro's technology platforms, which are designed to harness the body's natural immune system, are being investigated in cancer indications and have the potential to expand into autoimmune and infectious diseases. Aduro's LADD technology platform is based on proprietary attenuated strains of Listeria that have been engineered to express tumor-associated antigens to induce specific and targeted immune responses. Based on compelling clinical data in advanced cancers, this platform is being developed as a treatment for multiple indications, including pancreatic, lung and prostate cancers, mesothelioma and glioblastoma. Aduro's cyclic dinucleotide (CDN) platform is designed to activate the intracellular STING receptor, resulting in a potent tumor-specific immune response. Aduro’s B-select monoclonal antibody platform includes a number of immune modulating assets in research and preclinical development. Aduro is collaborating with leading global pharmaceutical companies to expand its products and technology platforms. For more information, please visit www.aduro.com.

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our intentions or current expectations concerning, among other things, the potential for ADU-741, plans and timing of Janssen’s Phase 1 clinical trial of ADU-741 and the potential for eventual regulatory approval, commercialization and launch of our product candidates. In some cases you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “would,” “project,” “plan,” “expect” or the negative or plural of these words or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those anticipated, including, but not limited to, our history of net operating losses and uncertainty regarding our ability to achieve profitability, our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates, our ability to use and expand our technology platforms to build a pipeline of product candidates, our dependence on our lead product candidate, CRS-207, and GVAX Pancreas, our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of our product candidates, our inability to operate in a competitive industry and compete successfully against competitors that have greater resources than we do, our reliance on third parties, and our ability to obtain and adequately protect intellectual property rights for our product candidates. We discuss many of these risks in greater detail under the heading "Risk Factors" contained in the most recent Form 10-Q which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and our actual results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and the development of the industry in which we operate, may differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Any forward-looking statements that we make in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. We assume no obligation to update our forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this press release.

Contact: Sylvia Wheeler SVP, Corporate Affairs 510 809 9264 Media Contact: Angela Bitting 925 202 6211 press@aduro.com

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