Allogene Therapeutics and Servier collaborate on allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) therapy and in particular UCART- 19.
Pfizer Inc.and Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. announced that the two companies have entered into an asset contribution agreement for Pfizer�s portfolio of assets related to allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) therapy, an investigational immune cell therapy approach to treating cancer. Allogene, co-founded and led by former executives of Kite Pharma, is ideally positioned to catalyze the development of this allogeneic cell therapy portfolio. Pfizer views this agreement as an attractive opportunity to support the continued development of allogeneic CAR T therapy in a highly focused and skilled manner.
Pfizer will continue to participate financially in the development of the CAR T portfolio through a 25 percent ownership stake in Allogene. Allogeneic CAR T cell therapies have the potential to become the next advancement in one of the most powerful anti-cancer agents, eliminating the need to create personalized therapy from a patient�s own cells. These therapies are developed from cells of healthy donors and stored for �off-the-shelf� use in patients, simplifying manufacturing process and reducing waiting time for patients.
Allogene will receive from Pfizer the rights to 16 preclinical CAR T assets licensed from Cellectis and Servier and one clinical asset licensed from Servier, UCART 19, an allogeneic CAR T therapy that is being developed for treatment of CD19-expressing hematological malignancies.
In partnership with Servier, UCART 19 is initially being developed in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and is currently in Phase I. UCART 19 utilizes TALEN gene editing technology pioneered and owned by Cellectis. Allogene and Servier intend to initiate Phase II studies in 2019. Under the terms of the original development agreement, Allogene will have exclusive rights to develop and commercialize UCART 19 in the United States, while Servier will retain exclusive rights for all other countries.
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