BrightPath Biotherapeutics and Artisan Bio Announce Research and Licensing Agreement to Accelerate Development of BrightPath's Novel Allogeneic iPSC Derived Cell Therapy Platform across Multiple Indications

• BrightPath to receive non-exclusive rights to Artisan's STAR-CRISPR editing platform to accelerate development of BrightPath's invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells
• Artisan to receive an upfront payment and research milestones, plus license fees, development milestones, net sales milestones, and royalty on future products

TOKYO and DENVER, May 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- BrightPath Biotherapeutics Co., Ltd. (TYO: 4594), a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development of cell therapies derived from invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells, and Artisan Bio. Inc, a precision genome engineering and drug discovery company, today announced they have signed a research and licensing agreement to accelerate BrightPath's next-generation iNKT cell therapies to clinic.

"This collaboration with Artisan provides BrightPath with the potential to create highly engineered allogeneic iNKT cellular therapy programs for a range of indications, including solid tumors," said Kenichi Nagai, BrightPath CEO. "Artisan's STAR-CRISPR system, and their leading editing efficiencies in iPSC cells, will enable BrightPath's iNKT cell therapies to solve the persistence and efficacy problems faced by first generation allogeneic CAR-T programs."

"We are excited for the BrightPath collaboration and the development of highly engineered iPS cells for cell therapy," said Ryan Gill, Artisan Bio CEO. "The BrightPath products will build upon our leading STAR-CRISPR platform, our highly optimized guides for allogeneic and proprietary target genes, and our rigorous off-target safety profiling."

Under this agreement, BrightPath will pay Artisan an upfront payment and research milestones for the development of CRISPR guides for the editing of BrightPath's iNKT cells. BrightPath has the right to a commercial license for the STAR-CRISPR guides and nuclease for a license fee plus development milestones, sales milestones, and a royalty on future products.

About BrightPath:
BrightPath is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel cancer immuno-therapies to transform cancer treatment for refractory or progressive cancers that cannot be treated with conventional standard therapies. BrightPath is actively involved in developing cell therapies currently in clinical trials, immunomodulatory antibodies and new drugs targeted at cancer specific neoantigens. For more information, visit www.brightpathbio.com/english/index.html.

About Artisan:
Artisan Bio is a world-leader in CRISPR genome engineering technology and provides drug developers with advanced genome engineering and drug discovery tools for the research and commercialization of cell and gene therapies, including companies such as Takeda and Cabaletta Bio. Artisan's proprietary STAR-CRISPR gene editing platform delivers leading editing efficiencies in multiple cell types including iPSC and T-cells, and is available through non-exclusive licenses. Artisan's SyionAI platform utilizes high-throughput CRISPR editing for novel drug discovery. For more information, visit www.artisancells.com.

SOURCE Artisan Bio