A US gene therapy developer has bought a majority stake in a French firm developing T cell-based therapies for immunological diseases.
Richmond, California-based Sangamo Therapeutics said Monday that it had bought the stake in TxCell, based in Valbonne, France, for €72 million, or about $84.4 million. Sangamo expects to complete the deal in the fourth quarter of this year. The stake purchased represents about 53 percent of TxCell.
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TxCell is developing treatments for immunological diseases – a therapeutic area of focus for Sangamo as well – that use regulatory T cells, or Tregs. Sangamo plans to evaluate the potential of Tregs genetically modified with a chimeric antigen receptor, also known as CAR-Tregs, for areas like prevention of graft rejection in organ transplants and for autoimmune diseases like Crohn’s disease and multiple sclerosis.
CARs are more commonly used in CAR-T cell therapies for blood cancers. Currently, two CAR-Ts are approved: Novartis’ Kymriah, for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia and adult diffuse large B-cell lymphoma; and Gilead Science’s Yescarta, for adult DLBCL. Sangamo said it would use its zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) gene-editing technology to develop autologous and allogeneic CAR-Tregs, meaning those using the patient’s own Treg cells and Treg cells from donors, respectively.
Other forms of gene-editing technology under development include CRISPR-Cas9 and TALENs, which stands for transcription activator-like effector nucleases. Sangamo has several therapies in Phase I/II development for various genetic diseases that rely on its ZFN technology: SB-FIX, for hemophilia B; SB-318 for mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) I; SB-913 for MPS II; and a therapy for beta-thalassemia.
TxCell’s lead product candidate is TX200, which is in preclinical development for preventing organ rejection and for which Sangamo plans to file with the European Medicines Agency to start a clinical trial in the first half of next year. On May 31, the company said it had agreed with Swiss contract manufacturer Lonza Pharma & Biotech to produce TX200.
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