Allogene Therapeutics is taking over rights to Pfizer's off-the-shelf chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell pipeline, backed by US$300 million from one of the largest series A funding rounds in the history of biotech.

Last year the FDA approved the first ever CAR Ts, a new type of cellular therapy in which T cells are genetically modified ex vivo to express cancer cell-seeking receptors, and then infused into patients. Despite compelling efficacy for these products in a few blood cancers, the approved and most of the investigational CAR Ts are autologous products that have to be manufactured from a cancer patient's cells, presenting considerable manufacturing challenges (Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. 16, 301–304; 2017).

Allogene — via its portfolio of Pfizer products, which the large pharmaceutical company in turn licensed from Cellectis and Servier — hopes to broaden the reach of this emerging modality by advancing off-the-shelf CAR Ts. Rather than collecting T cells from each cancer patient, their lead product, UCART19, is made by collecting T cells from healthy donors and then engineering these cells with transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) to inactivate native T cell receptors and thereby prevent activity against healthy tissue.

UCART19, a CD19-targeted CAR T, is in phase I development for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and is set to enter phase II next year. If approved, it would compete with Novartis's tisagenlecleucel and Gilead Sciences' axicabtagene ciloleucel — approved but autologous CD19-targeted CAR Ts.

Allogene has also acquired a portfolio of 16 preclinical off-the-shelf CAR Ts.

Allogene's management team includes former executives of CAR T pioneer Kite Pharma. Gilead acquired Kite last year for $11.9 billion for rights to axicabtagene ciloleucel and other experimental CAR T candidates.