Poseida Therapeutics has secured a research collaboration and license agreement worth up to $600m with Xyphos Biosciences to develop allogeneic cell therapies in oncology.
Xyphos Biosciences is a fully-owned subsidiary of Astellas Pharma.
The partnership will combine cell therapy platforms from both Xyphos Biosciences and Poseida Therapeutics to develop convertible Chimeric Antigen Receptor (convertibleCAR) programmes.
Poseida Therapeutics is a US-based biopharmaceutical company advancing therapies using differentiated cells and gene techniques to treat cancers and rare diseases.
The company is developing allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy products within oncology for both solid and liquid tumours.
On the other hand, Xyphos Biosciences uses proprietary ACCEL technology platform that combines convertibleCAR with proprietary MicAbodies to target tumour cells.
The collaboration will combine Poseida Therapeutics’ allogeneic CAR-T platform with the ACCEL technology.
Both companies will produce one Poseida Therapeutics-developed CAR-T construct for two convertibleCAR product candidates aimed at solid tumours.
Astellas Pharma chief strategy officer Adam Pearson said: “By leveraging our extensive expertise, experience in cancer biology and unique technologies, we are focused on reinvigorating the immune system’s ability to discover, disarm and destroy cancers in more patients.
“By combining the ACCEL platform with Poseida’s elegant and cutting-edge genetic editing platforms, we believe the collaboration will bring synergies between the two companies’ breakthrough research and will ultimately lead to expansion of Astellas’ portfolio and to delivery of innovative CAR-T cell therapies to cancer patients.”
Astellas Pharma’s subsidiary will cover Poseida Therapeutics` research costs and take charge of the development and commercialisation of products arising from the partnership.
As part of the deal, Poseida Therapeutics will earn an upfront payment of $50m along with potential development and sales milestones and contingency payments.
Additionally, the company is entitled to gain low double-digit tiered royalties based on net sales.
Poseida Therapeutics president and CEO Kristin Yarema said: “Today’s agreement further reinforces the economic value of Poseida’s highly differentiated non-viral technologies and enables development in areas beyond our core pipeline focus. It also highlights Poseida’s role as the partner of choice in allogeneic CAR-T.”
Last year in August, Astellas Pharma unveiled its plans to invest $50m in Poseida Therapeutics.
