News

Sangamo Therapeutics Inc has announced plans to acquire TxCell SA in a deal that will give it ownership of the French company’s regulatory T cell technology for the development of therapies against autoimmune diseases.

A new company has been launched in the UK to develop a peptide-based nanoparticle for the delivery of DNA and RNA into cells for the treatment of cancer and other diseases. The company, NanoGenics Ltd, aspires to replace the live vectors that are currently used to deliver gene therapies with a peptide-based nanoparticle which mimics natural viruses but with qualities enabling repeat dosing.

Kite Pharma, a unit of Gilead Sciences Inc, has entered into a strategic collaboration with Gadeta BV, a privately-held Dutch company, to discover and develop gamma delta T cell receptor (TRC) therapies for cancer. Kite’s first product, a chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy, has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for lymphoma. The company’s collaboration with Gadeta is focused on the treatment of solid tumours.

Novartis has negotiated an exclusive global licencing deal with MorphoSys AG and Galapagos NV for rights to their jointly developed monoclonal antibody for atopic dermatitis, MOR106. The antibody originated in MorphoSys’ laboratories and targets interleukin-17C, a cytokine that has been shown to play an important role in inflammatory skin disorders.

Genmab A/S has deepened its commitment to bispecific antibody technology under a licencing deal with Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH which involves research on multiple new cancer targets. Genmab earns royalties from a marketed monoclonal antibody product for cancer, but in recent years it has been turning to new modalities, such as bispecific antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates, to fill its pipeline.

Germany’s BioNTech AG has reached an agreement with Genevant Sciences Ltd, a new therapeutics company, to develop five products for the treatment of rare diseases using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. The partnership will draw on BioNTech’s expertise in personalised medicine, including RNA therapeutics, with Genevant’s lipid nanoparticle delivery technology.

Novartis reported second quarter net sales of $13.2 billion, up by 7%, and operating income of $2.5 billion, up by 9%, as demand for new products more than offset competition from lower-priced generic medicines.

Researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the UK have reported unexpected genetic changes in mouse embryonic stem cells following the use of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool. They warn that the scientific community may be overestimating the potential for gene editing as a human therapy, and urge that more work be done to better understand the safety profile of the technology.

Abzena Plc, the UK service provider, is to manufacture antibodies for two prospective radiopharmaceuticals being developed by Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd of Australia for the treatment of prostate cancer, one of the four most common cancers in the world.

With three gene therapies on the US market, the Food and Drug Administration has provided six new guidance documents for developers to clarify the regulatory standards for these new medicines.

Three of the new guidance documents relate to regulatory standards for manufacturing and three are product specific. The product-specific guidelines are intended to assist developers of prospective gene therapies for haemophilia, retinal disorders and rare diseases.