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Sana Biotechnology, IASO Biotherapeutics, and Innovent Biologics Announce Non-Exclusive License Agreement for Clinically Validated BCMA CAR Construct
Agreement combines IASO Bio and Innovent's CAR construct, validated in clinical trials, with Sana's in vivo and ex vivo engineered cell therapy programs
About this update from Sana Biotechnology, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Agreement combines IASO Bio and Innovent's CAR construct, validated in clinical trials, with Sana's in vivo and ex vivo engineered cell therapy programs\n\n\nSEATTLE, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN JOSE, Calif., NANJING, China, SUZHOU, China and SHANGHAI, Jan. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sana Biotechnology, Inc. (NASDAQ: SANA), a company focused on creating and delivering engineered cells as medicines, IASO Biotherapeutics (\"IASO Bio\"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in discovering, developing, and manufacturing innovative medicines, and Innovent Biologics (\"Innovent\", HKEX: 01801), a world-class biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures, and commercializes high quality medicines for the treatment of cancer, metabolic, autoimmune and other major diseases, today jointly announced that the companies entered into an agreement pursuant to which Sana obtained from IASO Bio and Innovent non-exclusive commercial rights to a clinically validated fully-human BCMA CAR construct for use in certain in vivo gene therapy and ex vivo hypoimmune cell therapy applications. IASO Bio and Innovent will receive an upfront payment and are entitled to receive up to approximately $204 million in potential development and regulatory milestone payments across up to six products, as well as royalties.\nB cell maturation antigen (BCMA) has been validated as a target for autologous CAR T therapy in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. The fully-human BCMA CAR construct licensed to Sana is a key part of an autologous BCMA-directed CAR T cell therapy product (Innovent: IBI326, IASO Bio: CT103A), which has shown promising clinical safety and efficacy profiles in China. \nThe latest data from the phase 1/2 clinical study was jointly presented by Innovent and IASO Bio at the 63rd American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting in Atlanta (Abstract # 547). IBI326 demonstrated an overall response rate of 94.9%, a minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity rate of 93.7%, and a complete response/stringent complete response (CR/sCR) rate of 58.2% in 79 RRMM patients. IBI326 also demonstrated activity in patients who had previously received CAR T therapy: among 13 such patients, the ORR was 76.9%, with 61.5% of those patients achieving very good partial response (VGPR) or better and 46.2% achieving CR/sCR (Trial Registration# NCT05066646). In Februa...