− iCART Program Advances the Potential for a Highly Scalable, Lower Cost, Off-the-Shelf CAR T-Cell Therapy to Treat Cancer
KYOTO and OSAKA, Japan I July 16,2019 – The Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at Kyoto University and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE:4502/NYSE:TAK) (“Takeda”) today announced that a novel induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy (iCART) has been transferred from their T-CiRA research collaboration to Takeda as the program begins process development toward clinical testing. Under the terms of the T-CiRA agreement, Takeda has the global rights to develop and commercialize the iCART product and CiRA will receive development and approval milestones. The teams will continue to collaborate as they prepare the iCART program for a clinical trial in 2021. [Read more…]
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — 
MONTREAL, April 23, 2019 — ExCellThera Inc., an advanced clinical stage biotechnology company delivering molecules and bioengineering solutions to expand stem and immune cells for therapeutic use, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted regenerative medicine advanced therapy (RMAT) designation to its lead technology, ECT-001, in the treatment of hematologic malignancies. The RMAT designation is based on strong data from Phase I/II clinical trials using ECT-001 to expand stem and immune cells for the treatment of blood cancers.