Date: 2016-08-02
Type of information: Licensing agreement
Compound: engineered immune cell therapeutics
Company: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (USA - NY) Adicet Bio (USA - CA)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Type agreement: licensing collaboration
Action mechanism: cell therapy/immunotherapy product/gene therapy/CAR-T cell therapy. T-cells engineered with tumor targeting molecules, such as CARs and TCRs, are emerging as a potential approach to restore the immune system's ability to recognize and eradicate tumors. However, there are several limitations to the current approaches for developing engineered T-cell therapeutics. Most approaches rely on ex vivo (outside of the body) editing of the patient's own immune cells, which creates process variability and logistical challenges. Regeneron and Adicet plan to pursue off-the-shelf cellular therapies. Additionally, while the current engineered product candidates have shown promise in certain blood cancers, such as leukemia and lymphoma, such efficacy in solid tumors is yet to be proven. The cell platform being developed by Adicet and novel targeting approaches to be pursued by the collaborators are aimed at improving access to and killing of solid tumor cells.
Disease: hematological cancers and solid tumor cancers
Details: * On August 2, 2016, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Adicet Bio announced a collaboration and licensing agreement to develop next-generation engineered immune cell therapeutics. The companies plan to engineer immune cells with fully human chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) and T-cell receptors (TCRs) directed to disease-specific cell surface antigens in order to enable the precise engagement and killing of tumor cells. The collaboration is intended to generate multiple clinical product candidates for various hematological and solid tumor cancers. Under the terms of the agreement, Regeneron and Adicet will collaborate to identify and validate appropriate targets and work together to develop a pipeline of engineered immune cell therapeutics for the selected targets. Regeneron has the option to obtain development and commercial rights for a certain number of the product candidates, and Adicet has an option to participate in the development and commercialization on these potential products or is entitled to royalty payments by Regeneron. Regeneron will have the right to leverage targeting molecules it developed under the collaboration in its other monoclonal and bispecific antibody programs, including those that are part of the Sanofi immuno-oncology collaboration.
Financial terms: Adicet will receive a $25 million upfront payment, as well as research funding over the course of a five-year research term. Immune cell therapy product candidates developed and commercialized by Adicet under the agreement will be subject to payment of royalties to Regeneron.
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