GEMoaB and Intellia Therapeutics Enter into Research Collaboration and Licensing Agreement on Next-Generation Cellular Immunotherapy Based on Proprietary RevCAR and CRISPR/Cas9 Genome Editing Platforms

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DRESDEN, Germany, July 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- GEMoaB, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of next-generation immunotherapies for hard-to-treat cancers, announced today that it has entered into a research collaboration and license agreement with Intellia (Nasdaq: NTLA), a global leader in the field of genome editing treatments. 

The companies will conduct joint research to combine GEMoaB's proprietary RevCAR technology platform with Intellia's proprietary genome editing technologies to discover and develop next-generation allogeneic cellular immunotherapies for hard-to-treat cancers and inflammatory diseases. The companies will focus on immunotherapies directed against a selected number of targets.

Under the terms of the agreement, GEMoaB will receive payments for each product based on target reservation and selection, achievement of regulatory, clinical and commercial milestones as well as tiered royalties based on net sales. Intellia will lead the research collaboration, and be responsible for clinical development and commercialization.

"We are very pleased to enter into the agreement with Intellia, which is, similarly to GEMoaB, using its cutting-edge technology to develop breakthrough products for patients with a high unmet medical need," said Armin Ehninger, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at GEMoaB. "Not only does the collaboration reflect the unique optionality of GEMoaB's technological platform, but it will also provide rapid clinical proof-of-concept for RevCAR, our second cellular immunotherapy platform."

Andrew Schiermeier, Ph.D., Intellia's Chief Operating Officer, added, "We are very pleased to work with the talented GEMoaB team, and believe that their RevCAR platform represents a unique and powerful advance in how we think about engineering cell therapies. We are confident that the combined power of GEMoaB's cellular immunotherapy platform and Intellia's numerous and proprietary CRISPR-based approaches to T-cell engineering will accelerate the development of unique and highly-differentiated, genome-edited products for patients with a high unmet medical need."

About GEMoaB

GEMoaB is a privately-owned, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that is aiming to become a globally leading, fully integrated biopharmaceutical company. By advancing its proprietary UniCAR, RevCAR and ATAC platforms, the company will discover, develop, manufacture and commercialize next-generation immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer patients with a high unmet medical need.

GEMoaB has a broad pipeline of product candidates in pre-clinical and clinical development for the treatment of hematological malignancies as well as solid tumors. Its clinical stage assets GEM333, an Affinity-Tailored Adaptor for T-Cells (ATAC) with binding specificity to CD33 in relapsed/refractory AML, and GEM3PSCA, an ATAC with binding specificity to PSCA for the treatment of castrate-resistant metastatic prostate cancer and other PSCA expressing late stage solid tumors, are currently investigated in Phase I studies and globally partnered with Bristol-Myers Squibb. A Phase IA dose-finding study of the first UniCAR asset, UniCAR-T-CD123 for treatment of relapsed/refractory AML and ALL is ongoing, UniCAR-T-PSMA against CRPC and other PSMA-expressing late-stage solid tumors, is planned to be tested in a Phase IA study initiated by H2 2020.

Manufacturing expertise, capability and capacity are key for developing cellular immunotherapies for cancer patients. GEMoaB has established a preferred partnership with its sister company Cellex, a world leader in manufacturing hematopoietic blood stem cell products and a leading European CMO for CAR-T cells, co-operating in that area with several large biotech companies.

About UniCAR and RevCAR

GEMoaB is developing rapidly switchable universal CAR-T platforms, UniCAR and RevCAR, to improve the therapeutic window and increase efficacy and safety of CAR-T cell therapies in more challenging cancers, including solid tumors as well as hard-to-treat inflammatory diseases. Standard CAR-T cells depend on the presence and direct binding of cancer antigens for activation and proliferation. An inherent key feature of the UniCAR and RevCAR platforms is a rapidly switchable on/off mechanism enabled by the short pharmacokinetic half-life and fast internalization of soluble adaptors termed targeting modules (TMs). These TMs provide the antigen-specificity to activate UniCAR/RevCAR gene-modified T-cells (UniCAR-T, RevCAR-T) and consist of a highly flexible antigen-binding moiety, linked to a peptide motif recognized by UniCAR-T/RevCAR-T. Different to UniCAR, where the CAR consists of a scFv, RevCAR uses an inert peptide attached to the CAR. RevCAR TMs consist of a highly flexible antigen-binding moiety, linked to a scFv domain binding to the inert peptide attached to the CAR of the RevCAR effector T-cell.

About ATAC

GEMoaB's platform of Affinity-Tailored Adaptors for T-Cells (ATAC) is characterized by high binding affinity to tumor antigens and lower affinity to the CD3 antigen on effector T-cells, preventing T-cell auto-activation in pre-clinical models. Safety and tolerability of the treatment are also increased by the relatively short serum half-life (60 min). The use of fully humanized antibodies reduces the risk of immunogenicity even in case of chronic dosing. Half-life extended ATACs are in pre-clinical development.

More information can be found at www.gemoab.com.

For further information please contact
Jana Fiebiger
[email protected]
Tel.: +49 351 4466-45012

Investor Contact
Michael Pehl
[email protected]
Tel.: +49 351 4466-45030

Forward-looking Statements

This announcement includes forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of our control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results and matters discussed in the forward looking statements. Forward looking statements include statements concerning our plans, goals, future events and or other information that is not historical information.

The Company does not assume any liability whatsoever for forward-looking statements. The Company assumes that potential partners will perform and rely on their own independent analyses as the case may be. The Company will be under no obligation to update the Information.

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