SEATTLE & NEW YORK & EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Juno Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: JUNO), a biopharmaceutical company focused on re-engaging the body's immune system to revolutionize the treatment of cancer, announced today that it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and Eureka Therapeutics, Inc. for a novel, fully-human binding domain targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA), along with binding domains against two additional undisclosed multiple myeloma targets to be used for the potential development and commercialization of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) cell therapies for patients with multiple myeloma. The binding domains were developed under a collaboration agreement between Eureka Therapeutics and MSK. The parties expect the BCMA CAR to enter human testing as early as 1H2017.
“We are optimistic that CAR T therapy can be an important component in treating patients with multiple myeloma, and we are pleased to bring additional fully-human binding domains against BCMA and other targets into our program,” said Hy Levitsky, M.D., Juno’s Chief Scientific Officer. “We believe that a multi-pronged approach may be necessary to treat this disease, and we will pursue more than one target against myeloma. The MSK and Eureka constructs are promising additions to our portfolio that will accelerate our efforts and provide additional opportunities to combat this disease.”
"We are pleased to work with Juno Therapeutics on developing CAR T therapies against multiple myeloma," said Dr. Cheng Liu, President and Chief Executive Officer of Eureka Therapeutics. “Multiple myeloma is a devastating disease. For the past three years, we have been working with MSK to develop CAR T therapies against multiple myeloma, and we are delighted that Juno is able to use their broad expertise to bring these therapies to patients faster."
MSK and Eureka Therapeutics are eligible to receive an undisclosed upfront payment, additional payments upon the achievement of undisclosed clinical, regulatory, and commercial milestones, and royalties on net sales.
About Eureka Therapeutics, Inc.
Eureka Therapeutics Inc. is a privately held biotechnology company, headquartered in the San Francisco Bay area, focused on developing first-in-class T cell immunotherapies for hematological malignancies and solid tumors. Its core technology platforms center around the discovery and engineering of fully human antibodies against intracellular targets via the MHCI complex. The company is developing a pipeline of novel cancer therapeutics targeting intracellular oncogenes.
About Memorial Sloan Kettering
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is the world’s oldest and largest private institution devoted to prevention, patient care, research, and education in cancer. Its scientists and clinicians generate innovative approaches to better understand, diagnose, and treat cancer. Memorial Sloan Kettering specialists are leaders in biomedical research and in translating the latest research to advance the standard of cancer care worldwide.
About Juno
Juno Therapeutics is building a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company focused on re-engaging the body’s immune system to revolutionize the treatment of cancer. Founded on the vision that the use of human cells as therapeutic entities will drive one of the next important phases in medicine, Juno is developing cell-based cancer immunotherapies based on chimeric antigen receptor and high-affinity T cell receptor technologies to genetically engineer T cells to recognize and kill cancer. Juno is developing multiple cell-based product candidates to treat a variety of B-cell malignancies as well as solid tumors. Several product candidates have shown compelling clinical responses in clinical trials in refractory leukemia and lymphoma conducted to date. Juno's long-term aim is to improve and leverage its cell-based platform to develop new product candidates that address a broader range of cancers and human diseases. Juno brings together innovative technologies from some of the world's leading research institutions, including the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Seattle Children's Research Institute, the University of California, San Francisco, and The National Cancer Institute. Juno Therapeutics has an exclusive license to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital patented technology for CD19 directed product candidates that use 4-1BB, which was developed by Dario Campana, Chihaya Imai, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
