Inovio Pharmaceuticals has received a $7 million milestone payment from MedImmune.

The payment is part of a license and collaboration agreement, valued at up to $700 million, signed by the two companies in 2015. Under that deal, MedImmune in-licensed an experimental immunotherapy from Inovio of Plymouth Meeting, Pa., that is being tested as part of a combination therapy on patients with recurrent/metastatic, human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated head and neck squamous cancer, writes John George in the Philadelphia Business Journal.

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The milestone payment was triggered by the satisfactory completion of a phase-I safety study of the experimental therapy, which has advanced to a phase-II clinical trial testing the effectiveness of the combination treatment.

“Inovio’s primary goal is to become the global leader in HPV-related disease treatment,” said Dr. J. Joseph Kim, the company’s president and CEO said.

He noted along with the research Medimmune is doing with HPV-related cancer, Inovio’s VGX-3100 is currently being tested in global phase-III pivotal trials for cervical pre-cancer as well as a treatment for vulvar and anal pre-cancers caused by HPV. “Overall, these products could be well-positioned to comprehensively treat HPV-related diseases across the continuum of HPV infections from pre-cancerous conditions to cancer in both women and men,” Kim said.

MedImmune is the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN), a London-based pharmaceutical company that has its U.S. headquarters in Wilmington, Del.

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