The UCL spinout has secured an additional licence to a protein that aims to reduce side effects associated with its Car T immuno-oncological approach.
University College London (UCL) has granted a licence to commercialise a T-cell therapy targeting malignant blood cancers to Autolus, a UK-based immunooncology developer spun out from the institution.
UCL Business, the university’s tech transfer office, was responsible for conducting the licence agreement.
The agreement covers an asset designated Auto1 that genetically modifies T-cells in a patient’s immune system to activate a cellular process, called CD19-CAR T, which could fight blood cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma.
Auto1, currently undergoing phase 1 trials on acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, uses CD19 proteins to counteract the overproduction of Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cells (Car T), which can lead to life-threatening complications for certain patient categories, such as the elderly or those with poor toxicity tolerance.
Autolus spun out UCL in 2014 to develop cell programming research led by Martin Pule, a clinical senior lecturer in the Department of Haematology at UCL’s Cancer Institute. It has focused on engineered T-cell therapies that target receptors such as Car T to kill malignant tumours without harming surrounding cells.
The spinout has raised a total of $182m in funding, including $80m from a September 2017 series C round that featured Woodford Investment Management, Syncona, Arix Bioscience, Cormorant Asset Management, Nextech and unspecified investors.
Woodford also backed an earlier $57m series B round for Autolus in 2016 alongside investors including Perceptive Bioscience Investments.
