A company started by former executives from Kite Pharma has raised $120 million to develop the next generation of CAR-T therapies. South San Francisco, California-based Allogene Therapeutics said the private financing was led by Perceptive Advisers, along with Deerfield Management, Fidelity Management and Research, Franklin Templeton Investments, Jennison Associates, Surveyor Capital, venBio Select Advisor, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, the University of California Office of the Chief Investment Officer and other mutual funds. The company was launched in April with a $300 million Series A funding round with participation from TPG, Vida Ventures, BellCo Capital, Pfizer and the University of California Office of the Investment Officer. The firm – of which Kite founders David Chang and Arie Belldegrun respectively serve as CEO and executive chairman – is developing allogeneic, or “off-the-shelf” CAR-T therapies. Allogeneic CAR-Ts are made with donor cells designed to be used in multiple patients, as compared with autologous CAR-Ts made with the patient’s own cells that must be tailor-made for each individual. Kite Pharma – which Gilead Sciences bought last year for $11.9 billion – makes the autologous CAR-T Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel). Swiss drugmaker Novartis markets its competitor, Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel). Both autologous CAR-Ts target the CD19 antigen and are approved for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma subtype, while Kymriah is also approved for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Allogene’s pipeline includes the UCART19, which targets CD19 and is currently in Phase I development for ALL. Allogene has licensed the CAR-T from French drugmaker Servier, which still holds ex-US rights. Under an asset contribution agreement announced in April, Allogene in-licensed rights to 16 preclinical CAR-T assets from Pfizer that the New York-based pharmaceutical giant had licensed from Servier and another French company, Cellectis. Pfizer also holds a 25 percent stake in Allogene. The startup’s other programs are preclinical and include candidates for hematological malignancies including non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, multiple myeloma and others, as well as for solid tumors, including renal cell carcinoma and small-cell lung cancer. The company plans to potentially start a registration-directed Phase II study of UCART19 in the second half of next year and plans to move its CD19-targeting candidate for NHL and BCMA-targeting candidate for multiple myeloma into the clinic starting in the first half of next year. Other companies have been developing allogeneic CAR-Ts cells as well, especially companies involved in gene editing, for which allogeneic CAR-T is a potential application. For example, Zug, Switzerland-based CRISPR Therapeutics plans to file an IND this year to begin clinical development of its in-house CD19-targeting allogeneic CAR-T, CTX110, which it developed using CRISPR-Cas9 technology. CRISPR’s other programs include CAR-Ts targeting BCMA and CD70, the latter of which is an NHL target that Allogene is also targeting. Photo: royaltystockphoto, Getty Images
Allogene has announced plans to expand development of the next generation of CAR-T therapies after securing $300 million in financing. The investment was led by Perceptive Advisors, with further contributions from a range of partners including Deerfield Management, Fidelity Management and Research, Franklin Templeton Investments, Jennison Associates and Surveyor Capital. The company is working on allogeneic CAR-T therapies, which are made with donor cells designed for use in multiple patients rather than those tailored for specific individuals using their own cells. The new investment comes after the company, which was launched in April, secured $120m in series A funding.