Aduro Biotech Announces Anti-CD27 Agonist, an Investigational Anti-Cancer Immunotherapy, Advancing in Collaboration with MSD

Expected Filing of Investigational New Drug (IND) Application in 2017

Company to Host Conference Call Today to Provide Program Update, Including STELLAR,
 at 5:30 a.m. PT/ 8:30 a.m. ET

BERKELEY, Calif. and OSS, The Netherlands, Dec. 05, 2016 -- Aduro Biotech, Inc. (Nasdaq:ADRO), a biopharmaceutical company with three distinct immunotherapy technologies, announced today that an anti-CD27 antibody developed by Aduro Biotech Europe and derived from its proprietary B-select technology has been selected to be advanced into clinical development by Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA (known as MSD outside the U.S. and Canada), through a subsidiary.  CD27 has been recognized as having a critical role in activating a productive anti-cancer immune response and has demonstrated the potential to be combined with checkpoint inhibitors in pre-clinical studies.

“Pre-clinical studies have shown that an anti-CD27 agonist can induce a T cell-mediated anti-cancer immune response, and in combination with PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitors complete tumor eradication can be achieved,” said Hans van Eenennaam, Ph.D., chief operational officer, Aduro Biotech Europe.

The CD27 antibody was licensed by MSD to advance as a part of their successful immunotherapy development program and was identified in close collaboration with Prof. Jannie Borst, Ph.D., professor at the University of Amsterdam and division head at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, through Aduro’s B-select monoclonal antibody technology. This technology includes a proprietary ultra-selective functional screening process to identify antibodies with unique binding properties against a broad repertoire of targets that can modulate the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system.

“In 2014, prior to the acquisition by Aduro Biotech, BioNovion entered into a worldwide license agreement with MSD that covers the product candidate’s development and advancement through commercialization,” said Andrea van Elsas, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Aduro Biotech Europe. “Both companies recognized the significant potential of targeting CD27 as a new and distinct mechanism in cancer immunotherapy, especially in the context of PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors, and were strongly committed to accelerate a quality candidate into the clinic.”

Conference Call with Management
Aduro’s management will host a conference call to review this announcement and provide a program update, including STELLAR, today at 5:30 a.m. PT/ 8:30 a.m. ET.  To participate in the conference call, please dial (844) 309-0604 (domestic) or (574) 990-9932 (international) and refer to conference ID 31336163. Live audio of the conference call will be simultaneously webcast and will be available to members of the news media, investors and the general public at http://investors.aduro.com/.

About the Aduro - MSD Collaboration
BioNovion B.V. and MSD, through a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA, entered into a worldwide license agreement in 2014 for the development and commercialization of CD27 antibody agonists, and BioNovion received an up-front payment of $15 million. In 2015, BioNovion was acquired by Aduro Biotech and became its subsidiary, Aduro Biotech Europe B.V.

Under the agreement, a Joint Research Committee was formed to advance the program. Aduro has been reimbursed for certain research activities and is eligible to receive future development, commercial and net sales milestone payments. In addition, Aduro is eligible to receive royalties in the mid-single digits to low teens based on any net sales of the product, if it is approved for marketing.  

About Aduro
Aduro Biotech, Inc. is an 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. This platform is being developed as a treatment for multiple indications, including pancreatic, ovarian, lung and prostate cancers, mesothelioma and glioblastoma. Additionally, a personalized form of LADD, or pLADD, is being developed utilizing tumor neoantigens that are specific to an individual patient’s tumor. Aduro's STING Pathway Activator platform is designed to activate the intracellular STING receptor, resulting in a potent tumor-specific immune response. ADU-S100 is the first STING Pathway Activator compound to enter the clinic and is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1 study in patients with cutaneously accessible metastatic solid tumors or lymphomas. 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 the anti-CD27 antibody described above, our technology platforms, plans, and the potential for eventual regulatory approval of our product candidates. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as “may,” “will,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “project,” “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 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 our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2016, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 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:
Susan Lehner
510 809 2137
[email protected]