Taiwan-based biotechnology company Acepodia has entered a strategic clinical collaboration with Pfizer Ignite to support the development of its cell therapies in autoimmune diseases.
Acepodia is a clinical-stage company developing advanced cell therapies with its unique antibody-cell conjugation (ACC) and allogeneic gamma delta 2 (γδ2) T-cell platforms.
Pfizer Ignite is an end-to-end offering that uses US pharma giant Pfizer’s resources, scale, and expertise to help biotech companies advance their development programmes.
Under the new partnership, Acepodia will receive Pfizer Ignite’s guidance and resources, as the company develops its cell therapies for oncology and autoimmune diseases.
The Taiwanese biotechnology company will retain all rights related to the development of its program and future partnership opportunities.
Pfizer Ignite head Kathy Fernando said: “Pfizer Ignite is focused on supporting the delivery of innovative therapies that are strategically aligned with Pfizer’s priority areas and have the potential to address significant gaps in patient care.
“Drawing on Pfizer’s deep expertise in oncology and immunology, we look forward to collaborating with Acepodia to help translate their compelling scientific platform into impactful new medicines for patients with unmet needs.”
Acepodia’s ACC platform leverages bio-orthogonal chemistry and is based on the work of 2022 Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi, who applied click chemistry to living systems.
The platform creates an off-the-shelf version of CAR-T cell therapy that is more easily scaled and avoids cytokine release storms, neurotoxicity, and other associated side effects.
Acepodia’s lead clinical candidate ACE1831 is currently being studied in a Phase 1 first-in-human clinical trial for patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
In the study, ACE1831 showed a durable effect after a single treatment at the lowest dose.
The collaboration with Pfizer Ignite will allow Acepodia to benefit from Pfizer’s resources, expertise, and R&D capabilities, to improve the process of drug development.
Acepodia CEO Sonny Hsiao said: “The significant unmet needs that exist in autoimmune diseases combined with the early positive results that have been seen with CAR-T therapies have opened the door for potential innovations that could provide the efficacy of CAR-T therapy without the challenges that have made routine use of CAR-T in autoimmune diseases difficult.
“We see a significant opportunity to bring the benefits of our ACC platform to autoimmune diseases, and working with Pfizer Ignite will position us well to deliver our immunotherapies to patients in desperate need of new options.”
