Car-t competition: Novartis competitor Juno plans IPO of $191 million to accelerate clinical projects

Source: Biovalley, December 11, 2014, car-t therapy represents the most advanced cancer immunotherapy technology, has made great success in related clinical trials, has become one of the most popular areas of drug research and development, and is also a hot spot of investment and cooperation At present, Novartis is in the leading position in the field of car-t, in which products for leukemia, lymphoma, mesothelioma and pancreatic cancer are developed In July this year, car-t immunotherapy ctl019 was recognized by FDA as a breakthrough therapy According to the data released recently at the annual meeting of the American Hematology Society (ash2014), the remission rate of ctl019 in the treatment of pediatric relapsed / refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (all) is as high as 92% (n = 36 / 39) (related reading: ash2014: Novartis car-t immunotherapy ctl019 perfectly demonstrates the therapeutic potential of leukemia - complete remission rate 92!!) Recently, Juno therapeutics, Novartis' main competitor in the field of car-t, filed an IPO with the securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and plans to raise $191 million to further promote the clinical development of its car-t assets According to the filing documents, Juno plans to invest US $25 million to promote jcar015 to the regulatory application stage, US $20 million to promote jcar017 to the registration test stage, US $45 million to internal R & D, US $20 million to establish production and operation, and the rest to general expenditure Juno has planned to mark the company's NASDAQ trading as "Juno." Prior to that, Wall Street has made a valuation of Juno of US $1.5 billion, making it the most valuable biotechnology company listed in 2014 This valuation brought Juno a little surprise (related reading: fierce biotech: the hottest 15 biological companies in 2014) Juno is the hottest start-up company in the field of biotechnology It has launched three car-t therapies in less than a year, and has rapidly grown into a leader in the field of tumor immunology Recently, Juno also obtained a complementary car-t product from NCI, marking the addition of the fourth clinical car-t product to the company's car-t assets In addition to jcar015, which has been approved by FDA as breakthrough therapy, jcar017 is another two products developed by the company for all and NHL, and jcar014 is currently in the early stage of research and development for various B-cell malignant tumors (related reading: new action in car-t field: Novartis opponent Juno joins hands with NCI to expand car-t assets) car-t immunotherapy jcar015 has a complete remission rate of 89% in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (all)!! At present, the car-t immunotherapy developed by Juno company has made remarkable achievements in relevant clinical trials According to data released at this week's annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ash), the complete remission rate of jcar015 in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (all) reached 89% (n = 24 / 27); in one study, the complete remission rate of jacr017 in the treatment of pediatric all reached 85% (n = 11 / 13) At present, the competition in the field of car-t is also very fierce In addition to Novartis and Juno, other followers in this field include kit Pharma, blue bird bio, a pioneer in gene therapy, and celgene, a biotechnology giant In June this year, Pfizer and cellectis signed an agreement of up to 2.9 billion US dollars to enter the car-t field Bluebird's acquisition of prenen in July is intended to further lay the position in the car-t field In November, JNJ signed a US $300 million cooperation with transposagen, and announced to enter the car-t field About car-t therapy: car-t is a personalized treatment method using patients' own T cells Patients' T cells are modified by genetic engineering, plus a chimeric protein, which is amplified in vitro and then transferred to patients T cells modified by chimeric proteins recognize and attack tumor cells with specific antigens and trigger immune response to achieve therapeutic effect.