U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and France’s Servier have snapped up rights to a promising cell therapy developed by French biotech firm Cellectis to fight blood cancers.
The so-called CAR T cell technology used by Cellectis involves reprogramming immune system cells to hunt out cancer. The “off-the-shelf” approach recently proved very successful in the case of a baby whom doctors thought almost certain to die.
Cellectis said on Thursday that Servier had exercised an option to acquire the exclusive worldwide rights to UCART19, which is about to enter initial Phase I clinical tests, and Pfizer would work with Servier on the drug’s development.
