With June just getting started, BMS and Sorrento are making new connections. Read on for announcements of these collaborations.
With June just getting started, two biopharma giants are making new connections. Read on for announcements of new collaborations between Bristol Myers Squibb and Immatics, Sorrento Therapeutics, the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trial Consortium (PCCTC) and Caris Life Sciences.
BMS and Immatics Pair to Advance Gamma Delta Allogeneic Cell Therapy Programs
Bristol Myers Squibb and Immatics announced on Thursday that the two companies have expanded their strategic alliance to pursue the development of multiple T cell receptor-engineered (TCR-T) and/or chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapies.
The two companies originally paired up in 2019 to develop autologous T cell receptor-based therapy. Now, the companies are collaborating to create two programs owned by BMS, and both companies have the option to develop up to four additional programs each. Per the collaboration agreement, Immatics will lend its proprietary gamma delta T-cell derived, allogeneic Adoptive Cell Therapy (ACT) platform, ACTallo, and BMS will provide a suite of next-generation technologies.
Under the terms of the new agreement, Immatics will receive an upfront payment of $60 million, with the potential to earn up to $700 million from BMS through development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments. The therapies produced by the companies will focus on oncological targets, namely patients with solid tumor malignancies. Immatics’ ACTallo process engineers cell therapies that can target both cancer cell surface targets and intracellular proteins that are presented as peptides on the surface of cancer cells.
“Today’s announcement represents an important part of our continued investment in next-generation cell therapies that have the potential to provide transformative outcomes to patients with cancer,” said Rupert Vessey, M.A., B.M., B.Ch., FRCP, D.Phil., executive vice president, research & early development, BMS. “We are excited to expand our collaboration with Immatics that allows us to combine their novel off-the-shelf platforms with our industry-leading research and manufacturing expertise in cell therapy to develop new allogeneic cell therapy treatments to potentially help patients with solid tumor malignancies.”
Sorrento Therapeutics, Caris Life Sciences and PCCTC Join Together for Precision Medicine
Sorrento Therapeutics, Caris Life Sciences, and PCCTC announced on Thursday that they have entered into a strategic collaboration to advance precision medicine for patients with advanced prostate cancer.
The collaboration plans to profile DNA, RNA and proteins from patient samples collected in a Phase II trial sponsored by Sorrento and managed by PCCTC. The goal of profiling the samples is to understand the mechanisms of disease response in advanced prostate cancer and resistance to treatment. Sorrento and PCCTC will leverage Caris’ unique Molecular Intelligence (MI) Profile, a multi-platform biomarker analysis for therapeutic decision support and clinical trial matching.
The Phase II trial, titled Maverick, is the first biomarker clinical trial for patients with the HSD3B1 adrenal-permissive genotype in men with castrate-resistant prostate cancer. The clinical trial is evaluating the effectiveness of avibertinib plus abiraterone in patients with the disease. Now the collaboration will use data collected to create a “molecular blueprint” to be used in an effort to better understand the malignancy.
“We are excited to partner with Caris and utilize their next-generation sequencing platform and data analytics capabilities to evaluate treatment response and resistance patterns in this study,” Jake Vinson, CEO of the PCCTC, said. “Through this collaboration, we hope to gain knowledge to better guide treatment options for future clinical trial participants, and ultimately all patients with prostate cancer.”
