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
CureVac and the University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a co-development and licensing agreement to develop novel messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based cancer vaccines. The strategic collaboration will focus on the development of differentiated cancer vaccine candidates in selected haematological and solid tumour indications with high unmet medical needs.
FUJIFILM Corporation is planning to invest $1.2 billion to expand the planned FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, US. This news follows the organisation’s announcement of a $2 billion investment in the facility in March 2021. This additional financial boost totals the investment to over $3.2 billion, FUJIFILM confirmed.
Sanofi’s global restructuring and downsizing is now fully underway, with layoffs stretching to the company’s Belgian offices. Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports that 67 employees have been laid off at a site in Ghent and 32 jobs are on the chopping block at Sanofi’s Belgium HQ in Diegem.
