Astellas and Adaptimmune Enter into Agreement to Co-Develop and Co-Commercialize Stem-Cell Derived Allogeneic CAR-T and TCR T-Cell Therapies

- Agreement covers the co-development and co-commercialization of up to three T-cell therapies -

- Agreement leverages Astellas’ Universal Donor Cell Platform and Adaptimmune’s stem-cell derived allogeneic T-cell platform -

- Astellas will pay Adaptimmune an upfront payment, research funding, development and commercial milestones, and royalties on net sales on co-commercialized products -

TOKYO, PHILADELPHIA and OXFORDSHIRE, United Kingdom, Jan. 14, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Astellas Pharma Inc. (TSE: 4503, President and CEO: Kenji Yasukawa, Ph.D., "Astellas"), through its wholly-owned subsidiary Universal Cells, Inc, and Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc (Nasdaq:ADAP), a leader in cell therapy to treat cancer, announced that they have entered into a co-development and co-commercialization agreement to bring new stem-cell derived allogeneic T-cell therapies to people with cancer.

Astellas and Adaptimmune will agree on up to three targets and co-develop T-cell therapy candidates directed to those targets. These targets will exclude target specific T-cell products in pre-clinical or clinical trials or those developed for other partners at Adaptimmune. The collaboration will leverage Adaptimmune's target identification and validation capabilities for generating target-specific T-cell Receptors (TCRs), chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), and HLA-independent TCRs that recognize surface epitopes independently of the HLA profile of the tumor cell. The collaboration will also utilize Astellas’ Universal Donor Cell and Gene Editing Platform it obtained through the acquisition of Seattle-based Universal Cells. 

Adaptimmune has been collaborating with Universal Cells (now an Astellas Company) since 2015 on development of gene-edited iPSC cell lines, for which Adaptimmune has rights to develop and commercialize resulting T-cell therapy products using its proprietary process for generating T-cells from stem cells without the use of feeder cell lines. 

Astellas will fund research up until completion of a Phase 1 trial for each candidate. Upon completion of the Phase 1 trial for each candidate, Astellas and Adaptimmune will elect whether to progress with co-development and co-commercialization of the candidate, or to allow the other Party to pursue the candidate independently through a milestone and royalty bearing licence, with the agreement allowing for either company to opt out. The companies will each have a co-exclusive licence covering the co-development and co-commercialization of the product candidates within the field of T-cell therapy. If a candidate is developed by one company only, the appropriate licences will become exclusive to the continuing party.