Shanghai-based Fosun Kite Biotechnology Co. Ltd. secured another $20 million investment from Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co. Ltd. and Kite Pharma Inc., which each contributed $10 million. The fund will support further clinical trials and manufacturing of its CAR T candidates, including FKC-876, which looks likely to become the first CAR T therapy approved in China.
BEIJING – CAR T therapy developer JW Therapeutics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. raised another $100 million this week after securing $90 million in series A round in 2018. The funds will continue to go toward its lead program, JWCAR-029, a CAR T-cell product targeting CD19 that is now in a phase II study.
Allogene Therapeutics Inc. investors will have to wait for an update in the second half of this year to find out more about whether off-the-shelf ALLO-501 can durably stand up to autologous CAR T-cell therapies, but early data disclosed at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting is creating buzz in the meantime.
SUZHOU, China – Genome editing startup Edigene Inc. and CAR T developer Immunochina Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., both from Beijing, have unveiled joint efforts to develop an allogeneic CAR T therapy for cancer. Terms remain undisclosed.
PERTH, Australia – Melbourne-based Prescient Therapeutics Pty Ltd. is poised to develop next-generation CAR T therapies after signing an exclusive global licensing deal with the University of Pennsylvania for a universal immune receptor technology platform.
BEIJING – CAR T-cell therapeutics developer Carsgen Therapeutics Co. Ltd., of Shanghai, won IND clearance from the FDA for its first-in-class CT-041 for advanced gastric and pancreatic cancers. The company said it is the first claudin18.2 (CLDN18.2)-targeted CAR T-cell therapy cleared for clinical trials in the world.
BEIJING – Legend Biotech Corp., headquartered in Somerset, N.J., filed with the U.S. SEC last week plans to raise up to $100 million to advance its BCMA-targeting CAR T candidate, LCAR-B38M, by listing on Nasdaq. Legend confidentially submitted a draft registration statement to the regulators in March.
Innovation is being rewarded under Medicare’s proposed fiscal 2021 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) that was unveiled Monday. For starters, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing a new Medicare-severity-diagnosis related group (MS-DRG) specifically for CAR T therapies.
HONG KONG – Singapore-based Tessa Therapeutics Pte Ltd.’s CD30 CAR T-cell therapy has been granted a regenerative medicine advanced therapy (RMAT) designation by the U.S. FDA based on data from two independent phase I/II trials in patients with relapsed or refractory CD30-positive classical Hodgkin lymphoma.
HYDERABAD, India – India could play a key role in driving down the exorbitant cost of emerging cell and gene therapies, with a combination of comparatively cheap labor and efficient manufacturing, international experts said during the annual BioAsia conference.
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