Bristol-Myers Squibb’s portfolio includes cancer cell therapies made from a patient’s own immune cells. The pharma giant also hopes to have a role in next-generation cell therapies that can be made ahead of time and “off the shelf” when needed, pledging $150 million to Century Therapeutics in a bet on the biotech’s stem-cell engineering method to help it achieve this goal.
The upfront payment is divided into $100 million in cash and a $50 million equity investment in Century.This protocol Monday announced a call on the Philadelphia-based biotech to develop two programs targeting acute myeloid leukemia and multiple myeloma. BMS may choose to add two more programs, subject to certain undisclosed conditions.
BMS already has cell therapy for multiple myeloma. Last March, FDA approves pharma giant’s CAR-T therapy Abecma. It becomes BMS’ second CAR-T therapy following FDA approval In February last year, Breyanzi received regulatory approval for a drug for diffuse large B-cell lymphomaBoth Abecma and Breyanzi are autologous, meaning they are made by taking a patient’s own immune cells and modifying them in the lab, then reinfusing them into the patient. This is a long, tedious and expensive process.
Century makes its therapies by engineering induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into one of two types of immune cells (natural killer cells, or T cells). Using CRISPR gene-editing technology, the company makes changes that optimize the performance of cells and prevent them from being rejected by a patient’s immune system. The biotech company isn’t the only one using gene-editing technology to create allogeneic cell therapies. Nkarta Therapeutics uses CRISPR to edit natural killer cells from healthy donors.that company has cancer cell therapy partnership with CRISPR therapy.
Fate Therapeutics’ approach is more similar to Century’s approach. Fate’s technology can instruct iPSCs to become various types of immune cells, including natural killer cells and T cells. For the past two years, Fate has been working with Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen. alliance Focused on developing cell therapies for blood cancers and solid tumors.
Under the terms of Century’s agreement with BMS, Century is responsible for drug candidate discovery and preclinical development. After that, Bristol-Myers Squibb will take over the clinical development of any of the alliance’s therapies and commercialize them if approved. Century will be responsible for drug candidate discovery and preclinical studies, while BMS will reimburse a portion of preclinical costs for BMS licensed therapeutic candidates. Century could receive more than $3 billion in milestone payments based on the progress of four potential projects. Century will receive royalties from sales of therapies commercialized by BMS under the agreement. Century may also choose to co-promote the acute myeloid leukemia program and one of the other programs in the U.S.
“Bristol-Myers Squibb is an ideal partner for us as they bring extensive clinical development and scientific expertise in cell therapy, which will increase the likelihood of these programs being technically successful,” said Century CEO Laura Lovelores said in a prepared statement. “Furthermore, this collaboration will allow us to deploy our next-generation iPSC platform to develop products targeting malignancies that are difficult for biotech companies to address on their own.”
Century’s own pipeline currently spans four projects. The company’s most advanced program, natural killer cell therapy for lymphoma, is expected to be ready for an investigational new drug application by the middle of this year.
Photo: Jeremy Mueller, Getty Images
