AbbVie has entered a strategic partnership with Umoja Biopharma for the development of new in-situ chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy candidates for oncology targets.
These therapies will be developed using Umoja’s VivoVec platform.
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The partnership comprises two exclusive option and licence agreements.
Under the initial deal, AbbVie will obtain the sole licensing option for CD19-directed in-situ generated CAR-T cell therapy candidates, including Umoja’s UB-VV111.
UB-VV111 is a lead clinical programme of the company in the investigational new drug application-enabling phase to treat haematologic malignancies.
The second agreement allows the companies to develop up to four further in-situ generated CAR-T cell therapies for discovery targets chosen by AbbVie.
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By GlobalDataUmoja received upfront payments, as well as an equity investment from AbbVie.
Together, the agreements could yield up to a total of $1.44bn for Umoja in option exercise, development and regulatory milestone payments.
Additionally, Umoja could receive sales-based milestone and royalty payments on global net product sales from AbbVie.
AbbVie discovery research vice-president and global head Jonathon Sedgwick said: “As we continue to strengthen our oncology portfolio, we believe that in-situ CAR-T cell therapy represents a paradigm shift utilising genetic medicine concepts.
“We look forward to working with Umoja’s team to advance next-generation in-situ CAR-T therapies, and potentially expand the patient populations and indications benefitting from conventional CAR-T approaches.”
The VivoVec gene delivery platform is a new approach that merges third-generation lentiviral vector gene delivery with a new T-cell targeting and activation surface complex.
This aids T cells within the body to produce their own CAR-T cells in vivo, potentially overcoming several challenges of standard CAR-T therapies.
Umoja Biopharma co-founder and CEO Andrew Scharenberg said: “By bringing together AbbVie’s like-minded pursuit of addressing patient unmet needs with our investments in vector biology and fully-owned commercial-scale manufacturing, we look forward to progressing multiple VivoVec drug candidates into the clinic in the coming years.”
Cell & Gene Therapy coverage on Pharmaceutical Technology is supported by Cytiva.
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