Precision BioSciences has signed a genome editing deal worth up to $1.6 billion with Baxalta, with aims to develop an allogenic CAR-T therapeutic. North Carolina-based Precision BioSciences will receive $105 million up front in the deal.
The two companies will develop CAR-T therapies for up to six unique targets, with the first slated to enter human trials next year.
CAR-T therapy isolates immune cells from cancer patients’ blood, and reengineers them to attack tumor cells. Precision BioSciences, a decade-old Duke spinout, has developed what it calls ARCUS genome editing technology that allows the production of CAR-T cells derived from healthy donors – as opposed to extracting them from patients.
The idea here is to help scale the manufacturing capabilities of CAR-T therapies, which can be difficult when individualizing the therapies to the point of extracting a patient’s own cell.
Baxalta has a number of products in its pipeline in the immunology and oncology spaces, including a broad spectrum of biologics. An allogeneic CAR-T approach – which many have found to be difficult to achieve – could be a powerful addition to its portfolio.
“Combining Precision BioSciences’ ARCUS technology with Baxalta’s global infrastructure, expertise and growing immuno-oncology portfolio is a synergistic approach that we believe has the potential to make disruptive approaches available to people with a range of underserved cancers,” David Meek, president of oncology at Baxalta, said in a statement.
Precision BioSciences has been tasked with all early stage work up through Phase 2, and Baxalta has the exclusive right to conduct late-stage development and commercialization. On top of the $105 million up front, potential royalties and milestones could make this deal worth up to $1.6 billion.