Pfizer and the French pharmaceutical company, Servier, have formed an exclusive global license and collaboration agreement to co-develop and commercialize UCART19, Talen gene-edited allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) immunotherapy that Servier is developing with the Frence biopharmaceutical company, Cellectis. UCART19 uses Cellectis' proprietary, allogeneic approach to develop CAR-T therapies that engineer T-cells from non-patient donors for use in multiple patients. This is different from autologous approaches, which engineer a patient's own T-cells.

Under the agreement between Pfizer and Servier, Pfizer and Servier will work together on a joint clinical development program for UCART19 and share development costs. Pfizer will be responsible for potential commercialization of UCART19 in the United States, and Servier will retain marketing rights in countries outside the United States. Pfizer's collaboration with Servier on UCART19 is distinct from the collaboration with Cellectis that Pfizer announced in June 2014, which did not include UCART19. Financial terms for the Servier agreement with Pfizer were not disclosed.

At the same time, Servier and Cellectis have amended their existing collaboration agreement from February 2014, which includes UCART19. Under this amendment, Servier early exercises its option to acquire the exclusive worldwide rights to further develop and commercialize UCART19, which is about to enter Phase I development for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Cellectis will receive from Servier a payment of $38.2 million upon signature. In addition, Cellectis is eligible for over $300 million of milestone payments, R&D financing, and royalties on sales from Servier, based on annual net sales of commercialized products.

Source: Cellectis and Servier