Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Amgen Inc. and Switzerland's Molecular Partners AG entered a collaboration and license deal to develop MP0310, an investigational immune therapy for cancer.

Molecular Partners will receive $50 million from Amgen up front and the Swiss biopharmaceutical company is also eligible for up to $497 million in milestone payments as well as double-digit, tiered royalties of up to the high teens.

Amgen will gain global development and commercial rights to MP0310 under the deal. The companies will jointly study the therapy, which works by modifying a patient's immune system to target tumors and cancers, in combination with Amgen's oncology pipeline.

Molecular Partners will retain some rights to develop and sell its proprietary DARPin pipeline products in combination with MP0310.

Amgen will shoulder all development costs of additional clinical trials.