Lyell Immunopharma to Acquire ImmPACT Bio and Prioritizes its Pipeline to Focus on Next-Generation CAR T-cell Therapies
Friday, October 25, 2024
Lyell Immunopharma, Inc. announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ImmPACT Bio USA Inc. (“ImmPACT”), a privately-owned clinical-stage biotechnology company. ImmPACT’s lead program, IMPT-314, is a CD19/20-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product candidate that Lyell will continue to develop for hematologic malignancies, including large B-cell lymphoma. IMPT-314 was designed to outperform the efficacy of approved CD19 CAR T-cell therapies via a dual-targeting CAR T-cell design and to improve CAR T-cell persistence by enriching for naïve and central memory T cells during manufacturing. The acquisition of ImmPACT is expected to significantly strengthen Lyell’s clinical-stage pipeline of next- generation CAR T-cell therapies and complement its suite of proprietary technologies designed to generate longer-lasting, functional T cells to achieve more durable outcomes for patients with solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.
“Lyell’s vision is to bring meaningful and durable clinical benefit to patients suffering from cancer with our next-generation cell therapies,” stated Lynn Seely, M.D., Lyell’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “The emerging data from ImmPACT’s ongoing Phase 1-2 trial and the Phase 1 clinical data from a published UCLA-sponsored trial suggest the potential of IMPT-314 to have improved complete response rates and duration of response compared to the approved CD19 CAR T-cell therapies in CAR-naïve patients with aggressive B-cell lymphoma. Since licensing this product candidate from UCLA, the team at ImmPACT has made impressive progress in the multi-center IMPT-314 Phase 1-2 clinical program. We look forward to presenting initial data from this program at a major medical conference later this year and initiating a pivotal trial for IMPT-314 in 2025.”
“I am incredibly proud of the ImmPACT team and all of their accomplishments in developing next-generation CAR T-cell therapies,” stated Sumant Ramachandra, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of ImmPACT. “This transaction validates our novel science and enhances the potential for this therapy to make a meaningful impact on patients' lives. I am confident that in Lyell, we have found a team that shares our passion for advancing novel science to benefit patients.”
Strengthening the Pipeline with IMPT-314
ImmPACT licensed its dual-targeting CD19/CD20 CAR T-cell product candidate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Phase 1 data in 13 patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma treated in a UCLA-sponsored clinical trial were presented at the 2024 AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy. CAR T-cell naïve patients with R/R diffuse large B-cell lymphoma or primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma after at least two lines of therapy or mantle cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma or chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma after at least three lines of therapy were evaluated. Autologous T cells were obtained and enriched for CD14-/CD25-/CD62L+ naïve or memory T cells. Twelve out of 13 patients achieved a complete or partial response (92% objective response rate), with ten achieving a confirmed complete response (CR) (77% CR rate). The median progression-free survival was 50.1 months, and median overall survival was not reached with a median follow up of 32 months (range: 5.7 – not estimable). A favorable safety profile was observed.
The ongoing Phase 1-2 clinical trial initiated by ImmPACT is a multi-center, open-label clinical trial designed to evaluate the tolerability and clinical benefit of IMPT-314 in patients with R/R aggressive B-cell lymphoma and determine a recommended Phase 2 dose. Initial Phase 1-2 clinical data evaluating IMPT-314 primarily in patients who have received at least two prior lines of therapy for large B-cell lymphoma will be presented at a major medical conference this year. IMPT-314 has received Fast Track Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of R/R aggressive B-cell lymphoma.
Lyell expects to initiate a pivotal trial in 2025 for IMPT-314 in patients in the 3rd line setting who have not yet been exposed to CAR T-cell therapy.
Source: globenewswire.com
