Another entrant in the CAR-T field, Cellectis, a Paris-based biotech, announces a collaboration with the French drug company Servier. Over the past few years, Servier has ramped up dramatically its efforts in the oncology area, particularly via collaborations. Note that due to the Phen-Fen debacle, Servier has no plans to enter into the US market. Cellectis has been in the biotech business for 14 years (originally in industrial nucleases), and has 5 company sites including that in the US. They had an IPO in 2007. The news release from today has resulted in a ~35% increase in the share price.
From their website, here is their pipeline:
Pipeline: UCART19 for CLL (Phase I in 2015); 12 antigenic targets for solid
tumors (in discovery phase); pluripotent cell-based ß-cells (partnered, in
discovery phase); engineered hepatocytes for hemophilia (discovery
phase)
cellectis.com
"February 17, 2014 – Cellectis (Alternext: ALCLS), an expert of allogeneic CAR T cell therapies, today announced that it has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Servier, the first independent French pharmaceutical research company, to develop and commercialize novel product candidates targeting leukemia and solid tumors.
The partnership covers the development and potentially the commercialization of Cellectis’ lead product candidate, UCART19. Engineered allogeneic CD19 T-cells currently stand out as a real therapeutic innovation for treating various types of leukemias and lymphomas.
The agreement also included research, development, and potentially the commercialization of five other product candidates targeting solid tumors." |
