AstraZeneca’s EsoBiotec acquisition is the latest in a series of deals struck by the pharma giant to secure a place in the next wave of cell therapies for cancer and immune-mediated diseases. EsoBiotec’s allogeneic cell therapies are made by the in vivo reprogramming of a patient’s immune cells.
The Houston-based company is developing a cell therapy for viral infections in patients with compromised immune systems, which it plans to move into Phase III studies within the next 12 months. AlloVir also raised $120 million in a Series B funding round.
In a recent interview, Esperion president and CEO, Sheldon Koenig talks about the reality of statin intolerance and his company’s expansion into new diseases
Allogeneic CAR-Ts could serve an important niche - particularly for patients who can't receive autologous CAR-Ts - but the earliness of the data makes conclusions tough to draw.
The Phase I study is planned to enroll 24 patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and follicular lymphoma and will be run under Allogene's collaboration with Servier.
The filing comes one week after the company, founded earlier this year with a $300 million Series A round by two former Kite executives, raised $120 million in a private financing.
Led by two Kite founders, the company launched with $300 million in VC funding in April and plans a registration trial of Servier's UCART19 and clinical development of its own allogeneic CAR-Ts next year.
In a landscape where complexity has long been the norm, the power of one lies not just in unification, but in intelligence and automation.