PHILADELPHIA, PA — Century Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: IPSC) and FUJIFILM Cellular Dynamics, Inc. recently announced a new worldwide license agreement and expansion of existing licenses for the development and commercialization of cell therapies derived from iPSCs for the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, including type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis.
There are up to 100 autoimmune conditions which collectively impact more than 24 million Americans,1 with studies indicating that both incidence and prevalence of autoimmune disease are rising for reasons that are poorly understood2. Treatment of autoimmune disease is currently limited to symptom management, and includes correcting resulting deficiencies in the body, along with reducing inflammation and the immune response. iPSCs have the capability to self-renew and differentiate into key cell types, providing regenerative and immune-modulating properties as a treatment modality.
The new licenses expand on the companies’ existing collaboration initiated in 2018 for iPSC-derived cancer immunotherapeutics.
Under the terms of the agreements, FUJIFILM Cellular Dynamics will be eligible to receive certain development and regulatory milestone payments as well as royalties related to products developed in connection with the companies’ agreements.
“Leveraging our proprietary Allo-Evasion™ technology, we believe we are uniquely positioned to develop differentiated, effective cell therapies that can be redosed to potentially deliver effective levels of drug exposure and immunologic pressure not only for the treatment of cancer, but also for immunologic diseases with high unmet need. These agreements enable further evaluation of Century’s iPSC-derived NK, T cell, and monocyte/macrophage platforms,” said Hy Levitsky, M.D., president of research and development, Century Therapeutics. “We look forward to sharing at ASH later this year our first clinical and translational dataset from the ongoing Phase 1 ELiPSE-1 trial of CNTY-101, an iPSC-derived CD19-specific CAR-NK cell therapy in patients with relapsed or refractory B cell lymphomas, supporting the potential of our platform to overcome the limitations that have historically prevented the successful application of off-the-shelf allogeneic NK cell approaches.”
“As a global leader in the field of iPSCs, we are pleased to expand our partnership with Century as they seek to develop new and transformative allogeneic cell therapies for the treatment of immune-mediated diseases,” said Tomoyuki Hasegawa, president and chief executive officer, FUJIFILM Cellular Dynamics, Inc. “FUJIFILM Cellular Dynamics supported Century Therapeutics in the manufacturing of CNTY-101 and we look forward to expanding our manufacturing partnership to address autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. We are committed to ensuring that iPSC-derived therapeutics realize their full potential, and we look forward to supporting Century Therapeutics’ progress.”
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