Zelluna Immunotherapy and Glycostem Therapeutics Partner on Cell Therapies

Biopharma company, Zelluna Immunotherapy, and clinical stage biotech, Glycostem Therapeutics, have entered into a partnership focused on the development and manufacture of allogeneic T-cell receptor (TCR) guided Natural Killer (NK) cell therapies (TCR-NK’s) for the treatment of cancer.

“This partnership between Zelluna and Glycostem represents a critical milestone in Zelluna’s aim to transform cell therapy treatments by enabling more patients to be treated effectively, rapidly, and safely. It is the industry’s first commercial development partnership of TCR-NK cells for treating cancer aiming at the rapid translation of our proprietary TCR-NK approach,” said Miguel Forte, CEO, Zelluna, in a Nov. 19, 2019 press release. “Zelluna selected Glycostem as a partner for the delivery of TCR-NK therapies for their expertise in NK-cell science, GMP manufacturing, and clinical testing of NK-cell products. The development of TCR-NK programs will run in parallel to Zelluna’s autologous TCR-T development programs, including its lead autologous T-cell product entering the clinic next year. Zelluna’s vision of cell therapies continues to be autologous and allogeneic products delivering much needed patient benefit.”

Under the terms of the development, license, and supply agreement, Zelluna will be responsible for the development and commercialization of TCR-NK products using its TCRs and TCR development competence. Glycostem will contribute to the partnership by manufacturing clinical grade umbilical cord derived NK-cells, NK-cell expertise, product process development, and clinical and commercial supply.

“We are very proud to be collaborating with Zelluna, a transformative TCR cell therapy company to jointly develop allogeneic TCR-NK products for the benefit of hard to treat patients. This partnership will enable Glycostem’s NK-cells to deliver increased efficacy against solid tumors in a TCR-NK product using Zelluna’s TCR targeting mechanism,” added Troels Jordansen, CEO, Glycostem, in the press release. “This is further confirmation of the significant interest in NK-cell products and an external validation of Glycostem’s abilities which supports our commercial and scientific ambitions; taking cellular immunotherapy to the next level.”

Source: Zelluna