This week's life sciences industry news from around the region includes details on a cell therapy company's multimillion-dollar licensing deal, a merger of life sciences technology providers, a South Jersey hospital's new molecular virology laboratory, and more.
Here's the roundup:
Cabaletta Bio
The Philadelphia cell therapy company has obtained an exclusive worldwide license for what it has described as a "newly designed, fully human CD19 chimeric antigen receptor" under development as a treatment for multiple, unspecified autoimmune diseases.
Cabaletta (NASDAQ: CABA) licensed the cell therapy candidate, CABA-201, from Nanjing IASO Biotherapeutics Co. Ltd. of China.
Under the terms of the deal, IASO is eligible to receive up to $162 million consisting of an upfront payment and payments contingent upon achieving specified development and commercial milestones. IASO will also be eligible for tiered mid-single-digit royalties on future net sales for products that result from the collaboration.
Dr. Steven Nichtberger, Cabaletta's co-founder and CEO, said the company's plans are to file an investigational new drug application for CABA-201 during the first half of 2023. If the application is approved, the company expects to have initial clinical data during the first half of 2024.
Cabaletta has entered into an exclusive translational research partnership with Dr. Georg Schett, a global leader in the application of CD19-targeting cell therapies in autoimmunity, as part of its efforts to develop the experimental therapy.
The company said with the addition of CABA-201 to its cell therapy pipeline, Cabaletta can potentially address a broad range of autoimmune diseases in indications such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, myositis and systemic sclerosis, among others where B cells contribute to disease progression.
"We believe CABA-201 has the potential to transform treatment of several common autoimmune diseases by providing clinical and serologic remission and a potential to reset the immune system," Nichtberger said.
Panacea Technologies
CXV Global — an alliance comprised of Xyntek Inc., which has offices in Newtown and Bristol; Crest Solutions of Ireland; and VistaLink of Belgium — said this week it is combining the three businesses under common ownership with Montgomeryville-based Panacea Technologies.
Financial terms of the merger, which created a company with more than 500 employees in the United States and Europe, are being kept confidential.
Water Street Healthcare Partners has committed what it described only as "significant capital" to expand the global footprint of the combined company's technology platform.
The transaction, the companies said, creates a global provider of software and other technologies that automates and digitizes operations for life sciences company that cover the entire life cycle of pharmaceutical products and medical devices.
Jefferson Cherry Hill Hospital
The South Jersey medical center this week unveiled its new molecular virology laboratory, established through a $4.7 million pandemic preparedness grant from the New Jersey Department of Health.
Dr. Zixuan Wang will lead the Cherry Hill lab as scientific director.
The molecular virology lab, which features technology capable of performing more than 3,000 tests in 24 hours, will provide PCR-based testing for Covid-19 as well as other common viruses such as HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and human papillomavirus.
It is also equipped to perform viral genome sequencing, a research method that deciphers the genetic material found in an organism or virus — which allows for monitoring of current shifts in circulating viral strains such as Covid.
Quick Hits
University of Pennsylvania spinout Capstan Therapeutics named Dr. Athena Countouriotis, previously president and CEO of Turning Point Therapeutics, as its board chairwoman and Michael Rosenzweig, most recently entrepreneur-in-residence at RA Ventures, as its executive vice president for portfolio strategy and product development. The company, which last month announced its had closed a $165 million equity financing, is working to advance cell-based therapies by enabling precise in vivo engineering of cells with payloads to benefit patients across multiple disease categories. Capstan has offices in Philadelphia and San Diego. … Ocugen (NASDAQ: OCGN) of Malvern completed patient dosing for its Phase 1/2 clinical trial involving OCU400, which the company is developing as a potential gene therapy for patients with an inherited retinal degeneration disorder known as retinitis pigmentosa. … Plymouth Meeting-based Inovio (NASDAQ: INO) reported positive interim results from an ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial evaluating INO-3107 for the treatment of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, a disease characterized by recurrent wart-like growths on the surface of the vocal cords or tissue around the vocal cords, in adults. The first cohort of 21 participants receiving INO-3107 showed what the company said is a "statistically significant" improvement in the number of surgical interventions needed to control papilloma growth. … Philadelphia-based Proscia, a provider of digital and computational pathology software, has introduced the next version of its Concentriq Dx platform for primary diagnostic workflows. The Concentriq Dx platform is designed to help laboratory networks of all sizes transition to 100% digital diagnosis and shift away from microscope-based pathology.
