PERTH, Australia – Imugene Ltd. has closed an AU$90 million (US$64 million) placement and an AU$5 million share repurchase plan that will allow the company to progress its CAR T pipeline through 2025 and pursue a collaboration with Celgene Corp. spin-off Celularity Inc.
Resveratrol-triggered genetic switches, which can control in vivo tumor-targeted chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapy, have been developed by Chinese researchers, who demonstrated that the new tools enabled maximized in vivo immunotherapeutic efficacy while minimizing toxicity.
Cellares Corp. added Poseida Therapeutics Inc. to its expanding early access partnership program (EAPP) for the company's Cell Shuttle, a highly specialized "factory in a box" solution for development of cell therapies. San Diego-based Poseida brings two autologous CAR-T product candidates to the program and joins Pact Pharma Inc. and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the EAPP.
PERTH, Australia – Startup Currus Biologics Pty Ltd. has launched with a AU$10 million (US$7.5 million) series A round with the mission of improving the success of CAR T-cell therapies against solid tumors such as breast, ovarian and pancreatic cancers.
China’s drug regulator granted a first CAR T therapy approval to Fosun Kite Biotechnology Co. Ltd.’s FKC-876. Marketed as Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) in the U.S. and EU, the approval by the National Medical Production Administration for the CD19-directed CAR T therapy came 3.5 years after the FDA nod.
Intellia Therapeutics Inc. CEO John Leonard said the deal with Blackstone Life Sciences and Cellex Cell Professionals GmbH will create a new CAR T-cell therapy enterprise that bears “a German background with a strong American accent.” Blackstone committed $250 million to launch an autologous and allogeneic universal CAR T-cell therapy firm that will put together Intellia’s allogeneic cell platform plus CRISPR cell engineering with expertise from CAR T specialist Gemoab GmbH, a subsidiary of Cellex.
CAR T specialist Carsgen Therapeutics Holdings Ltd.’s shares started trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on June 18, helping the company raise HK$3.1 billion (US$400 million) from an IPO that will allow it to advance its phase II-stage BCMA CAR T therapy candidate, CT-053, in multiple markets.
DUBLIN – Mnemo Therapeutics SAS emerged from stealth mode having raised €75 million (US$91 million) in a series A financing round to take forward a new chimeric antigen T-cell (CAR T) platform, which is focused on selectively targeting both solid and liquid tumors expressing a previously undescribed class of antigens and on improving the persistence and fitness of CAR T cells.
Umoja Biopharma Inc. has raised $210 million in a series B financing that will help it advance a pipeline of in vivo engineered CAR T-cell immunotherapies to the clinic, as well as build its internal manufacturing capabilities, it said. The Seattle-based company is focused on the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. Softbank Vision Fund 2 and Cormorant Asset Management led the financing, the third largest series B round this year, according to BioWorld data. It follows a $53 million series A round the company announced in November 2020.
Novartis AG’s CAR T therapy, Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel), is heading for a third indication after the Basel, Switzerland-based pharma announced supportive results from a pivotal phase II trial, lining it up to compete with Gilead Sciences Inc.’s rival, Yescarta.
