Poseida Therapeutics and Roche have entered into a strategic collaboration and license agreement to develop allogeneic CAR-T therapies for hematologic malignancies.
The collaboration will leverage Poseida’s novel approach to cell therapy and Roche’s expertise in developing and marketing therapies.
It will focus on advancing multiple existing and additional next-generation cell therapies against targets in multiple myeloma, B-cell lymphomas and other hematologic indications.
Under the agreement, Poseida is expected to receive an upfront of $110m and along with up to $110m in near-term milestones and other payments in the next several years.
The company is also eligible to receive potential research, development, launch, and net sales milestone payments of up to $6bn, along with tiered royalties on net sales.
Poseida chief executive officer Mark Gergen said: “We are excited to partner and collaborate with Roche, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies, which has a successful track record in the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative medicines.
“Roche is an ideal strategic partner for Poseida with its industry-leading R&D capabilities in oncology, complementary technologies and expertise, and global regulatory and commercial capabilities.
“Working together, we look forward to advancing novel allogeneic cell therapies based upon Poseida’s technologies for patients battling cancer.”
Roche will receive either exclusive rights or options to develop and commercialise a few allogeneic CAR-T programs in Poseida’s portfolio, with an IND expected in 2023.
The programs include P-BCMA-ALLO, an allogeneic CAR-T therapy for multiple myeloma and P-CD19CD20-ALLO1, a similar therapy that targets B-cell malignancies.
In addition, the two companies will also collaborate in a research program to create and develop new features and improvements for allogeneic CAR-T therapies.
Poseida will conduct the Phase 1 studies and manufacture clinical materials before the programs are transferred to Roche for further development and distribution.
Roche will be wholly responsible for the late-stage clinical development and global distribution of all the products emerging from the collaboration.
Roche pharma partnering global head James Sabry said: “We are excited to partner with Poseida to further explore the potential of allogeneic cell therapies to transform cancer care by developing off-the-shelf products that can address high unmet medical needs for a broad patient population.
“Poseida’s differentiated platform technologies complement our ongoing internal efforts and partnerships to discover and develop cell therapies as a next generation of medicines for patients.”
