Adaptimmune Therapeutics, Genentech partner up to support allogeneic cell therapy development and commercialization

Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc, a biopharma company that focuses on the creation of cancer immunotherapy products, has entered into a strategic collaboration and licensing agreement with Genentech, a biotech company and member of the Roche Group, to develop and commercialize allogeneic cell therapies to help treat multiple oncology indications.

The partnership consists of two parts: development of allogeneic T-cell therapies for up to five shared cancer targets, and the development of personalized allogeneic T-cell therapies. For each component, Adaptimmune will be tasked with developing clinical candidates using its induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived allogeneic platform to produce T-cells (iT cells), while Genentech will then be responsible for the input T-cell receptors (TCRs) and clinical development and commercialization.

Per the deal, Adaptimmune will receive an upfront payment of $150 million, followed by additional payments of $150 million over five years, unless the agreement is concluded beforehand. Adaptimmune might also qualify to receive research, development, regulatory and commercial milestones payments potentially exceeding $3 billion in value. If the company sees fit, it can also opt in to a 50/50 US profit/cost share on "off-the-shelf" products.