The deal, which involves a $700 million upfront payment, gives AbbVie access to ISB 2001, a clinical-stage first-in-class trispecific antibody currently being tested for certain kinds of multiple myeloma as well as autoimmune indications.
AbbVie and the New York–based biotech Ichnos Glenmark Innovation are entering into a licensing agreement that will give AbbVie an investigational first-in-class trispecific antibody for oncology and autoimmune diseases.
The drug, called ISB 2001, is IGI’s lead asset and targets BCMA and CD38 on myeloma cells and CD3 on T cells.
The deal, announced Thursday, has AbbVie paying IGI $700 million upfront. IGI is also eligible to receive up to $1.225 billion in milestone payments, as well as tiered, double-digit royalties. AbbVie will receive development, regulatory and commercial rights for ISB 2001 in North America, Europe, Japan and Greater China.
ISB 2001 won orphan drug designation for multiple myeloma in July 2023 and then Fast Track designation this past May for specific patient groups with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. Its trispecificity is aimed at overcoming drug resistance that has developed in heavily treated patients whose cancers have not receded.
IGI is currently testing the antibody in a Phase I dose escalation trial for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. The company released initial results from that trial in June at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2025 meeting, reporting no dose-limiting adverse effects, an overall response rate of 79% and a complete response rate of 30%.
AbbVie may be particularly interested in shoring up its oncology pipeline. Last month, the company’s molecule Venclexta, approved for a handful of leukemia-related indications, failed to produce benefit in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes.
The deal with IGI is the second in as many weeks for AbbVie, which in late June scooped up Capstan Therapeutics and its suite for CAR T therapies aimed at autoimmune diseases for $2.1 billion. On top of these transactions, AbbVie began a partnership in May with ADARx Pharmaceuticals, worth about $335 million, to access that company’s siRNA technology in neuroscience, immunology and oncology. And late last year, the company picked up Aliada for $1.4 billion, scooping up an anti-amyloid antibody aimed at Alzheimer’s as well as tech for getting drugs across the blood-brain barrier.
IGI, launched in early 2024, is the result of a “global alliance” between Ichnos Sciences and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals focused on blood cancers and solid tumors.
