Pictured: Astellas Pharma US headquarters in Illinois/iStock, JHVEPhoto

图为：Astellas Pharma美国伊利诺伊州总部/JHVEPhoto伊斯托克

Astellas Pharma on Wednesday entered into a collaboration and license agreement with Poseida Therapeutics to develop novel CAR-T therapies for solid tumors.

Astellas Pharma于周三与Poseida Therapeutics签订了合作和许可协议，以开发针对实体瘤的新型CAR-T疗法。

Under the deal, Astellas will pay an upfront fee of $50 million and has pledged up to $550 million in potential development, sales and other contingent payments. Poseida will also be eligible for up to low-double digit tiered royalties on net sales. Astellas will conduct the transaction through its subsidiary Xyphos Biosciences..

根据该协议，Astellas将支付5000万美元的预付费，并承诺在潜在开发、销售和其他或有付款方面支付高达5.5亿美元。波塞达也将有资格获得低至两位数的净销售额分层版税。Astellas将通过其子公司Xyphos Biosciences进行交易。。

The collaboration is designed to combine “the innovative cell therapy platforms from each of the companies,” according to Wednesday’s announcement.

根据周三的公告，此次合作旨在结合“每家公司的创新细胞治疗平台”。

Poseida will contribute its proprietary allogeneic CAR-T platform, while Xyphos will lend both its ACCEL and convertibleCAR technologies. The partnership’s goal is to produce one CAR-T construct, which in turn will yield two convertibleCAR product candidates for solid tumors.

波塞达将提供其专有的异基因CAR-T平台，而Xyphos将同时提供其ACCEL和convertibleCAR技术。该伙伴关系的目标是生产一种CAR-T构建体，这反过来将产生两种可转化的CAR实体瘤候选产品。

Xyphos will reimburse Poseida for costs under the agreement and will take charge of R&D activities and future commercialization of products that may arise from the partnership, according to the companies.

据两家公司称，Xyphos将向波塞达偿还协议项下的费用，并将负责研发活动和未来合作伙伴关系可能产生的产品商业化。

Designed to be a flexible cell therapy, Xyphos’ convertibleCAR technology makes use of a modified NKG2D protein, a natural human receptor that is commonly found on natural killer cells and some T-cells, and functions to facilitate immune surveillance.

Xyphos的convertibleCAR技术旨在成为一种灵活的细胞疗法，它利用修饰的NKG2D蛋白（一种常见于自然杀伤细胞和一些T细胞上的天然人类受体），并具有促进免疫监视的功能。

According to the biotech’s website, the modifications to NKG2D allow the convertibleCAR construct to be controlled and activated with engineered molecules, such as bispecific antibodies, that can recognize binding sites on tumor cells. This approach brings tumor cells close to immune cells that have been activated to attack and destroy them..

根据生物技术公司的网站，对NKG2D的修饰允许可转化的CAR构建体被工程化分子控制和激活，例如可以识别肿瘤细胞上结合位点的双特异性抗体。这种方法使肿瘤细胞接近免疫细胞，这些免疫细胞已被激活以攻击和破坏它们。。

In addition, attaching different functional moieties to the convertibleCAR construct allows them to target different antigens, which could help therapies target tumor cells that have changed to avoid detection by the immune system.

此外，将不同的功能部分连接到可转化的CAR构建体上可以使它们靶向不同的抗原，这可以帮助治疗靶向已经改变的肿瘤细胞以避免免疫系统的检测。

Adam Pearson, chief strategy officer at Astellas, in a statement said that the Poseida partnership “will bring synergies between the two companies’ breakthrough research and will ultimately lead to the expansion of Astellas’ portfolio and to the delivery of innovative CAR-T cell therapies to cancer patients.”.

Astellas首席战略官亚当·皮尔森（AdamPearson）在一份声明中表示，波塞达合作关系“将带来两家公司突破性研究之间的协同作用，并最终导致Astellas投资组合的扩大，以及为癌症患者提供创新的CAR-T细胞疗法。”。

Wednesday’s announcement follows a previous agreement between the two companies, inked in August 2023, to support Poseida’s work in cancer cell therapeutics. Astellas at the time invested $50 million in Poseida, half of which was used to acquire 8.8% of Poseida’s shares, while the other half bought the right of exclusive negotiation and first refusal to license the clinical-stage CAR-T program P-MUC1C-ALLO1 for solid tumors..

周三的声明之前，两家公司于2023年8月签署了一份协议，支持波塞达在癌细胞治疗方面的工作。当时，Astellas向波塞达投资了5000万美元，其中一半用于收购波塞达8.8%的股份，而另一半则购买了独家谈判权和优先购买权，以获得实体瘤临床阶段CAR-T计划P-MUC1C-ALLO1的许可。。

Tristan Manalac is an independent science writer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. Reach out to him on LinkedIn or email him at tristan@tristanmanalac.com or tristan.manalac@biospace.com.

特里斯坦·马纳拉克（TristanManalac）是一位独立的科学作家，总部位于菲律宾马尼拉。在LinkedIn上联系他，或发电子邮件给他tristan@tristanmanalac.com或tristan.manalac@biospace.com.