Immuneel Therapeutics, based in Bengaluru, has announced that it has entered into a multi-asset collaboration & licensing agreement with Hospital Clínic de Barcelona (HCB) & Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS).

Under the collaboration which opens up opportunities for co-development of advanced assets to be deployed in Spain & India, Immuneel acquired the exclusive rights to develop & commercialise autologous ARI-0001 – a CD19 Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, in India.

This agreement puts Immuneel as a front-runner in the pursuit of offering accessible & affordable CAR Ts to patients in India through registration clinical trials & its investments in further process optimization.

Speaking about this milestone collaboration:

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (Co-founder, Immuneel) said, “This partnership with HCB & IDIBAPS is pathbreaking & heralds the advent of life saving CAR T therapy for patients in India. Immuneel is committed to providing affordable access to this cutting- edge therapy at state-of-the-art facilities housed at the Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre. I would particularly like to call out Dr. Campistol & Dr. Juan Uriach for their willingness to partner with us in our mission to give hope to cancer patients who can benefit from cell therapies.”

HCB/IDIBAPS are public institutions that collaborated with a vision to create ARI-0001 as a product that can be an affordable option to treat patients with B cell malignancies in Spain. Dr. JM. Campistol (CEO, HCB) said, “We are extremely proud about this collaboration with Immuneel. We are convinced about the benefits of our CAR T therapy on patients with Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). This is the beginning of a fruitful & promising collaboration between  our  academic research  efforts (HCB   & IDIBAPS) & Immuneel to improve the treatment of hematological disorders.”

Dr. Elias Campo (Research Director, HCB-IDIBAPS) added, “CAR T based therapies have shown efficacy in the treatment of certain leukemias & lymphomas. With this partnership we will improve our knowledge on this kind of therapies & more patients will benefit from them.”

Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee (Co-founder, Immuneel) further added, “Immuneel is extremely proud to bring this cutting-edge cell therapy to India. These "living drugs", created from genetically modified cells, have saved the lives of hundreds of cancer patients around the world but have been unavailable in India. Unlike standard medicines, these cell therapies have to be produced & delivered with immense car e & technical finesse. A clinically tested target like CD19 will enable Immuneel validate its clinical delivery for CAR T cells in India.”