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Factor and Eterna Announce Exclusive Collaboration Agreement to Accelerate iPSC-derived MSC Therapies for Oncology, Autoimmune, and Rare Diseases
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 17, 2024 — Factor Bioscience Inc. and Eterna Therapeutics Inc. announced an exclusive license and collaboration agreement aimed at accelerating the development of advanced cell therapy candidates for oncology, rare diseases, and autoimmune disorders. Under the terms of the agreement, Eterna has secured a worldwide, exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-bearing license, with the right to grant sublicenses, to develop and market certain induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based cell therapy products (in particular iPSC derived mesenchymal stem cells (iMSC) that are engineered to express certain cytokines) utilizing Factor’s cell reprogramming and gene-editing technologies, patents, and know-how. The agreement positions both companies with the potential to accelerate the development of advanced cell therapies in the oncology, rare disease, and autoimmune fields.
“We are excited to collaborate with Factor to unlock the full potential of these transformative cell therapies,” said Sanjeev Luther, Eterna’s President & CEO. “Our focus at Eterna has always been on developing transformative treatments for patients with difficult-to-treat diseases, and we believe this collaboration agreement increases our potential to rapidly advance therapies that target solid tumors, rare diseases, and autoimmune disorders.”
Factor and Eterna will collaborate on data generation that seeks to demonstrate efficacy of the licensed drug candidates for development towards IND by Eterna directly or with third-party sublicensees. As part of the agreement, Factor is entitled to receive milestone payments per product candidate, as well as post-commercialization royalties.
“We are thrilled to support Eterna’s pipeline of advanced cell therapy product candidates,” said Matt Angel, Ph.D., CEO of Factor. “Eterna’s team has deep translational and development expertise, making them the ideal partner to develop these products. Together, we are taking an important step toward making these therapies available to patients in need.”
About Factor Bioscience
Founded in 2011, Factor Bioscience is the leading cell engineering platform technology company working to harness the potential of cell engineering to treat disease and improve health. Factor Bioscience is privately held and headquartered in Cambridge, MA.
About Eterna Therapeutics Inc.
Eterna Therapeutics is a publicly traded, preclinical-stage company focused on using cutting-edge tools to deliver highly innovative, effective, and safe off-the-shelf cell therapies for the treatment of advanced solid tumors, with an initial emphasis on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and platinum-resistant, TP53-mutant ovarian cancer. The company is currently focused on advancing its lead product ERNA-101, an induced allogenic mesenchymal stem cell (iMSC) product, designed to selectively deliver the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-7 and IL-15 to the tumor microenvironment (TME) in order to drive significant anti-tumor immunity. ERNA-101 is built on the company’s in-licensed core technology, which utilizes a best-in-class approach to engineer allogenic iPSCs to express genes of interest and to efficiently differentiate these cells into iMSCs.
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