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Atara Biotherapeutics enters into immunotherapy alliance with MSK

US-based Atara Biotherapeutics has entered into an exclusive option agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) to develop and commercialize allogeneic T-cell therapies to treat certain cancers and persistent viral infections.

As part of the deal, Atara will have the option to acquire a worldwide license to three clinical stage T-cell therapies.

These therapies include T-cells activated against Epstein Barr Virus, or EBV (Phase 2); T-cells activated against cytomegalovirus, or CMV (Phase 2); and T-cells activated against Wilms Tumor 1, or WT1 (Phase 1).

The company said that these three programs share a common technology under which third-party donor-derived whole blood is collected and enriched for T lymphocytes (T-cells), which are then exposed to certain antigens, and the resulting activated T-cells are characterized and stored for future therapeutic use.

MSK chair of the Department of Pediatrics and chief of the Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Service Richard O’Reilly said, "This collaboration brings the expertise and resources together to expand on the exciting clinical results we’ve observed and will allow us to bring these therapies to a broader patient population."

Under the deal, MSK will receive cash and Atara common stock in return for the exclusive option.

In case Atara exercises its option to enter into the license deal, MSK will receive an upfront license payment and will be eligible to secure additional payments based on achievement of certain development, regulatory and sales-related milestones as well as royalty payments.

Both the firms have agreed to collaborate on further research to develop additional cellular therapies, which may include T-cell therapies against other antigens and/or chimeric antigen receptor-modified T-cells, known as CAR-T.

Atara chief medical officer Christopher Haqq said the partnership with MSK supports the company’s vision to identify and develop therapies with broad potential to address a number of serious unmet medical needs using innovative science.

"We believe that these off-the-shelf T-cell therapies hold substantial promise for patients who have limited treatment options," Haqq said.