Pharmaceutical giants withdraw from the cell therapy alliance

On the morning of October 25, British biotechnology company Adaptimmune released news that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) abandoned its NY-ESO and PRAME projects, and GlaxoSmithKline's partner Lyell also announced on the 24th that GlaxoSmithKline has withdrawn from the Cell Therapy 2.
0 Alliance
.

The Cell Therapy 2.
0 Alliance is one of the most prominent teams of scientists in the field of cell therapy, former CEO of GlaxoSmithKline Hal Barron acquired the alliance with $250 million in upfront funding, hoping that GlaxoSmithKline will become a key member of
the Cell Therapy 2.
0 Alliance.
A few months after Barron left GSK, the pharmaceutical giant abandoned the first-generation Adaptimmune project
.
GSK partnered with Adaptimmune in September 2017, through which GSK secured the NY-ESO Exclusive rights to develop and promote SPEAR T therapy
.

Hal Barron

After the news of GlaxoSmithKline's withdrawal from the alliance, Adaptimmune's stock price fell by 12%, approaching the level of cheap stocks, and Lyell's stock price fell by about
5% on the morning of the 25th.

GlaxoSmithKline's new CEO, Tony Wood will be solely responsible for the company's pipeline research and development
.
Discontinuation is based on a strategic assessment of GSK's product line, and the discontinuation of trials is not based on any clinical efficacy or safety data
for these programs.
GSK issued a statement saying that when it comes to prioritizing pipeline assets and projects, it does not have a strong belief that these projects will produce approved drugs and vaccines, and that it prefers to invest its R&D budget in higher-value goals rather than continuing to develop projects that they are not confident about
.

Tony Wood

GSK said in a filing with the U.
S.
Securities and Exchange Commission that the company will cancel its program
for NY-ESO-1 after strategically evaluating data from Adaptimmune's first-generation lete-cel product candidate for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Terminated projects include "second-generation candidates that incorporate Lyell genes and epigene reprogramming technologies (LYL132 and LYL331), as well as other second-generation approaches
being explored by GSK.
" The investigational new drug (IND) application for LYL132 was approved in January 2022, while the IND for LYL331 has not yet been filed with the U.
S.
Food and Drug Administration
.

Lyell said GSK did not observe the expected level of clinical activity (for lete-cel) and decided to stop enrollment pending further data
from the study.
GSK is currently evaluating these preliminary figures and may inform
the ongoing development of the second-generation NY-ESO-1 project.
This introduces new uncertainties
for the further development of the NY-ESO-1 product candidate combining Gen-R and Epi-R technologies.

Adaptimmune is a leader in TCR-T therapeutics, focused on developing innovative cancer immunotherapy products
.
This company's unique SPEAR (Specific Peptide The Enhanced Affinity Receptor) T cell platform allows T cells to target and destroy a variety of malignant tumor cells, including solid tumors, by modifying T cells
.

Company pipeline

Company preclinical programs

Lyell is a preclinical solid tumor biotechnology company focused on T-cell reprogramming technology
.
The company has proprietary technology platforms for developing therapeutic technology development product candidates, such as Gen-R and Epi-R technologies to overcome technical barriers
to addressing T cell failure after infusion and lack of long-lasting stemness (lack of self-renewal, reproduction and differentiation capabilities).

Company pipeline

GSK axes Lyell cell therapy, passes programs to Adaptimmune