Poseida Therapeutics and Astellas Pharma to develop allogeneic cell therapies

Astellas Pharma (ALPMF) and Poseida Therapeutics (PSTX) announced that Xyphos Biosciences, a wholly owned subsidiary of Astellas, and Poseida have entered into a research collaboration and license agreement to develop novel convertibleCAR programs by combining the cell therapy platforms from each of the companies. Poseida is advancing differentiated cell and gene therapies with the capacity to cure certain cancers and rare diseases. In oncology, its pipeline includes allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy product candidates for both solid and liquid tumors that address patient populations with high unmet medical need. Xyphos utilizes a proprietary ACCEL technology platform that uses its convertibleCAR in combination with proprietary MicAbodies to target tumor cells. The companies plan to combine Poseida’s proprietary allogeneic CAR-T platform with Xyphos’ ACCEL technology to create one Poseida-developed CAR-T construct to form the basis of two convertibleCAR product candidates targeting solid tumors. Xyphos will reimburse Poseida for costs incurred as part of the research agreement and will be responsible for the development and future commercialization of products generated from the collaboration. Poseida will receive $50M upfront plus potential development and sales milestones and contingency payments of up to $550M in total. Additionally, Poseida is eligible for up to low double digit tiered royalties as a percentage of net sales.