Dive Brief:

摘要：

Abbvie has agreed to acquire cell therapy developer Capstan Therapeutics in a deal worth up to $2.1 billion, the companies

AbbVie已同意以高达21亿美元的价格收购细胞疗法开发商Capstan Therapeutics，两家公司表示。

announced Monday

周一宣布

.

。

The acquisition will hand AbbVie access to technology developed by Capstan that uses small fatty spheres known as lipid nanoparticles to deliver into the body genetic instructions able to engineer specific cells. It’s an ambitious scientific approach that blends the science behind CAR-T cell therapy with that of messenger RNA vaccines..

此次收购将使AbbVie获得Capstan开发的技术，该技术使用称为脂质纳米颗粒的小脂肪球体，将能够改造特定细胞的基因指令递送到体内。这是一种雄心勃勃的科学方法，结合了CAR-T细胞疗法和信使RNA疫苗背后的科学原理。

Capstan is a few weeks removed from

卷线筒距离现在有几个星期了

dosing the first patient in a Phase 1 trial

给第一阶段试验中的第一个患者用药

of its lead drug candidate, which it’s testing as treatment for B cell-mediated autoimmune diseases. Dubbed CPTX2309, the therapy is designed to reprogram immune T cells to target a protein called CD19 that’s commonly found on B cells.

其先导候选药物，正被测试用于治疗B细胞介导的自身免疫疾病。这款名为CPTX2309的疗法旨在重新编程免疫T细胞，以靶向通常在B细胞上发现的一种名为CD19的蛋白质。

Dive Insight:

深度洞察：

AbbVie’s deal to buy Capstan takes the pharmaceutical company to the frontiers of cell therapy research.

AbbVie收购Capstan的交易使这家制药公司走到了细胞疗法研究的前沿。

While CAR-T therapies are now well established in cancer medicine, all existing treatments are constructed by removing a patient’s own cells and reengineering them in a laboratory. The complexity, expense and time involved in this process has, for the most part, kept adoption of CAR-T to just a few treatment niches within oncology broadly. .

虽然CAR-T疗法在癌症医学中已经得到广泛应用，但所有现有的治疗方法都是通过提取患者自身的细胞并在实验室中进行重新改造来构建的。这一过程的复杂性、高昂的成本和时间投入，使得CAR-T疗法的采用在很大程度上仅局限于肿瘤学领域的少数治疗细分方向。

Researchers have imagined broader usage could come if production of CAR-T was done by the body, rather than by technicians in a lab. This “in vivo” approach requires delivery of genetic instructions to the target cells.

研究人员设想，如果 CAR-T 的生产是由身体而不是实验室的技术人员完成的，那么它的用途可能会更广泛。这种“体内”方法需要将基因指令递送到目标细胞。

Capstan accomplishes this by using modified lipid nanoparticles and messenger RNA, building blocks similar to the technology that enables mRNA vaccines to train the body to recognize viral proteins. Capstan engineers its lipid nanoparticles to especially seek a certain type of T cell.

卡普斯坦通过使用改良的脂质纳米颗粒和信使RNA来实现这一目标，这些构建块类似于使mRNA疫苗能够训练身体识别病毒蛋白的技术。卡普斯坦设计其脂质纳米颗粒以特别寻找某种类型的T细胞。

In vivo CAR-T could offer a more convenient alternative in oncology, where AbbVie is already working with partner

在体内CAR-T可能为肿瘤学提供一个更方便的选择，AbbVie已经与合作伙伴在此领域展开工作。

Umoja Biopharma

乌莫加生物制药

.

。

But it also could be well suited for

但是它也可能非常适合

applying CAR-T to immune disease

将CAR-T应用于免疫疾病

. Academic research from several years ago showed CAR-T’s potential treating diseases like lupus and kindled a

几年前的学术研究展示了CAR-T在治疗狼疮等疾病方面的潜力，并激发了

frenzy of investment

投资狂热

from small and large drugmakers alike. Capstan is one of many companies now exploring whether cell therapy might help “reset” the immune system in diseases where the body’s self regulation has come unglued.

来自小型和大型制药公司。Capstan 是众多探索细胞疗法是否可以帮助“重置”免疫系统的公司之一，适用于身体自我调节失灵的疾病。

With its drug CPTX2309, Capstan aims to redirect T cells to hunt down B cells that express the CD19 protein. By clearing both pathogenic and normal B cells, the reprogrammed T cells will prompt this immune reset and hopefully prevent disease progression.

通过其药物CPTX2309，Capstan旨在重新引导T细胞猎杀表达CD19蛋白的B细胞。通过清除致病性和正常B细胞，重新编程的T细胞将促使这种免疫重置，并有望防止疾病进展。

And because T cell reprogramming is accomplished by mRNA instructions, Capstan believes the engineered T cells its treatment creates will be transient and clear out after accomplishing their job.

而且由于 T 细胞重新编程是通过 mRNA 指令完成的，Capstan 认为其治疗产生的工程化 T 细胞将是短暂的，在完成任务后会被清除。

Prior to Monday’s deal, the biotech had convinced a

周一的交易之前，这家生物技术公司已经说服了

good number

良好数量

of

的

investors

投资者

in its approach. Pfizer, Bayer, Eli Lilly, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis and Johnson & Johnson all invested in Capstan in at least one of its private funding rounds, through which the startup has raised $340 million.

在其方法上，辉瑞、拜耳、礼来、百时美施贵宝、诺华和强生都至少参与了Capstan的一轮私人融资，通过这些融资，这家初创公司已经筹集了3.4亿美元。

The acquisition could pay Capstan’s investors up to $2.1 billion at closing. A spokesperson for AbbVie, reached via email, declined to break down the deal’s terms further.

这笔收购在交易完成时可能向Capstan的投资者支付高达21亿美元。通过电子邮件联系到的AbbVie发言人拒绝进一步细分交易条款。

Earlier this year, AstraZeneca

今年早些时候，阿斯利康

paid $425 million upfront to acquire EsoBiotech

支付了4.25亿美元的预付款收购EsoBiotech

, which is also working on in vivo cell therapy.

，该公司还在研究体内细胞疗法。