Century is one of several companies developing “allogeneic” cell therapies, which involve cells from donors and are meant to be more convenient than personalized, “autologous” CAR-T counterparts. The company was launched by Versant Ventures in 2019 with $250 million in funding — a sizable round that included the financial support of Bayer — and added another $211 million in an initial public offering two years later.
But Century has been swept up in the biotech sector’s downturn since then, a pullback that’s hit cell therapy developers particularly hard. The company has also dealt with growing skepticism around allogeneic treatments, which have struggled to match the high bar set by CAR-T therapies and are dealing with increased competition from bispecific antibodies. Century has lost more than 80% of its value since its IPO and, in January, laid off 25% of its staff and restructured its pipeline. Others such as Celularity and Fate Therapeutics have restructured in the last few months as well.
Century began a Phase 1 trial of a prospective lymphoma treatment in February. The study will test the potential of a repeat dosing regimen, one strategy allogeneic cell therapy developers are evaluating to boost the durability. That effort will, for now, be led by Russotti, a former cell therapy executive with Celgene. READ MORE
By Delilah Alvarado
Source: biopharmadive.com
Though Galapagos has undergone plenty of staff shake-ups and strategy revamps in recent years, the company is sticking strong to the CAR-T pivot first unveiled by CEO Paul Stoffels, M.D., following his arrival at the biotech from Johnson & Johnson in early 2022.
The new investment is expected to create more than 500 jobs and significantly strengthen France’s ability to control the production of essential medicines from start to finish, the company stated. According to Sanofi, this plan increases the amount Sanofi has committed to major projects in France since the Covid-19 pandemic to over €3.5 billion.
A tough biotech funding environment and a downturn in COVID-related contracts has weighed heavily on CDMOs of all stripes in recent years. Now, with a new CEO waiting in the wings, Swiss manufacturing juggernaut Lonza is attempting to reassure the market that an industry stabilization is on the horizon.
