Ann: ALA-101 and onCARlytics collaboration update, page-11

Some info and context ive received today...

Imugene has ended its collaboration with Arovella with over the CD19-iNKT / onCARlytics program.

The program was initiated 18 months ago,before Arovella expanded its own armoured solid tumour therapy range and before Imugene acquiring their modified CD19-CAR-T drug azer-cel for US$220m.

Imugene expects azer-cel to work effectively as an off-the-shelf CAR-T for blood cancers, like Arovella’s CD19-iNKT drug. Both components for the azercel/onCARlytics combination are in individual phase 1 clinical trials. Imugene is due to start trials for the combined drugs imminently (announced 11/03/2024).

From a recent research report: “Imugenes recent acquisition of Precision Biosciences’ allogeneic CAR T cell therapy,azer-cel is a major addition to its pipeline that complements Imugene’s onCARlytics program. While azer-cel continues to progress for r/r NHL patients in clinical trials, the acquisition allows Imugene to develop its own combination solution in multiple hard-to-treat solid tumor indications. This enables the company to streamline R&D, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution processes, eliminating reliance on third parties, potentially leading to significant cost saving to market.”

There have been no reports of Imugene cancelling a collaboration with Celulartity’s CYCART-19, an allogeneic CD19-CAR-T drug at a similar stage to Arovella’s ALA101. This raises the question of why one and not the other. With this decision, and after very positive “test tube” data, we won’t see the data from the ALA/IMU mouse trial collaboration to potentially help understand the decision for one and not the other.

As Imugene had no options over Arovella’s CD19-iNKT drug, which was used in the collaboration, this appears to be a strategic decision to protect their acquisition from the competition of other off-the-shelf drugs.