Pfizer,Cellectis Ink Cancer Immunotherapy Pact

Pfizer,the world's largest pharmaceutical company,has signed a deal with French biotech firm Cellectis to develop and commercialise CAR-T immunotherapies in the field of oncology directed at several targets.Cellectis' CAR-T technology utilises engineered T-cells from a single donor for use in multiple patients,rather than engineering a patient's own T-cells to target tumour cells.*
Cellectis' CAR-Ts are off-the-shelf products which can be industrialised and standardised.They may be shipped in advance and would be accessible to cancer centers all over the world without the need for a local CAR-T processing facility,which is an enormous advantage.*
Cellectis plans to open a US site for this collaboration with New York-based Pfizer.Cellectis CEO Andre Chulika,PhD,said we look forward to working closely with the team at Pfizer on researching and developing novel CAR-T therapies that could potentially change the way cancer is treated.
Mikael Dolsten,MD,PhD,Pfizer President of R&D,added that combining the innovation and scientific expertise of Cellectis with Pfizer's deep oncology and immunology experience creates a world-class partnership designed to deliver a new generation of CAR-T immunotherapies for cancer patients with urgent medical needs.*
Cellectis will receive an upfront payment of 80 million dollars plus R&D costs.It will also receive development,regulatory and commercial milestone payments of 185 million per Pfizer product,as well as tiered roylaties on net sales.Pfizer will also purchase about 10% of Cellectis capital through newly issued shares of Cellectis,pending shareholder approval.*
Pfizer(PFE),Cellectis(ALCLS:EN Paris)