Astellas Inks Second CAR-T Agreement with Poseida to Develop ‘Convertible’ Cancer Therapies

2024-05-02

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Pictured: Astellas Pharma US headquarters in Illinois/iStock, JHVEPhoto Astellas Pharma on Wednesday entered into a collaboration and license agreement with Poseida Therapeutics to develop novel CAR-T therapies for solid tumors. Under the deal, Astellas will pay an upfront fee of $50 million and has pledged up to $550 million in potential development, sales and other contingent payments. Poseida will also be eligible for up to low-double digit tiered royalties on net sales. Astellas will conduct the transaction through its subsidiary Xyphos Biosciences. The collaboration is designed to combine “the innovative cell therapy platforms from each of the companies,” according to Wednesday’s announcement. Poseida will contribute its proprietary allogeneic CAR-T platform, while Xyphos will lend both its ACCEL and convertibleCAR technologies. The partnership’s goal is to produce one CAR-T construct, which in turn will yield two convertibleCAR product candidates for solid tumors. Xyphos will reimburse Poseida for costs under the agreement and will take charge of R&D activities and future commercialization of products that may arise from the partnership, according to the companies. Designed to be a flexible cell therapy, Xyphos’ convertibleCAR technology makes use of a modified NKG2D protein, a natural human receptor that is commonly found on natural killer cells and some T-cells, and functions to facilitate immune surveillance. According to the biotech’s website, the modifications to NKG2D allow the convertibleCAR construct to be controlled and activated with engineered molecules, such as bispecific antibodies, that can recognize binding sites on tumor cells. This approach brings tumor cells close to immune cells that have been activated to attack and destroy them. In addition, attaching different functional moieties to the convertibleCAR construct allows them to target different antigens, which could help therapies target tumor cells that have changed to avoid detection by the immune system. Adam Pearson, chief strategy officer at Astellas, in a statement said that the Poseida partnership “will bring synergies between the two companies’ breakthrough research and will ultimately lead to the expansion of Astellas’ portfolio and to the delivery of innovative CAR-T cell therapies to cancer patients.” Wednesday’s announcement follows a previous agreement between the two companies, inked in August 2023, to support Poseida’s work in cancer cell therapeutics. Astellas at the time invested $50 million in Poseida, half of which was used to acquire 8.8% of Poseida’s shares, while the other half bought the right of exclusive negotiation and first refusal to license the clinical-stage CAR-T program P-MUC1C-ALLO1 for solid tumors. Tristan Manalac is an independent science writer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. Reach out to him on LinkedIn or email him at tristan@tristanmanalac.com or tristan.manalac@biospace.com.

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Astellas BV