AstraZeneca has exercised an option to license a cell therapy from Quell Therapeutics, resulting in a $10m milestone payment heading to the latter company.
AstraZeneca has selected a candidate to progress in the type 1 diabetes (T1D) Treg cell therapy programme, as per an 18 November press release. It is the first asset licensed by the British big pharma as part of an ongoing collaboration with London-based biotech Quell since last year.
AstraZeneca will now take on future duties of the therapy, including clinical trial application and investigational new drug application-enabling studies. Quell will continue to provide chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) support, including supplying the drug product for a first-in-human trial. According to the deal, the biotech has the option to continue working alongside AstraZeneca and the selected T1D candidate in the US, gaining co-development rights in exchange for additional milestone payments and increased royalties on net sales in the country.
AstraZeneca and Quell signed their collaboration deal last year targeting two autoimmune diseases, T1D and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The deal included an $85m upfront payment, along with more than $2bn in milestone payments.
At the time, AstraZeneca’s BioPharmaceuticals R&D executive vice-president Mene Pangalos said the company was excited to explore the “untapped potential with Treg cell therapies in autoimmune indications”.
Treg therapy, so-called because it harnesses regulatory T cells, is an emerging treatment for several diseases that occur due to an overactive immune system, such as autoimmune disorders. AstraZeneca hasn’t been the only big pharma company to be attracted by the technology – Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) made an equity investment in Abata Therapeutics in August to advance a multiple sclerosis candidate.
Founded in 2019 with six Treg specialists from University College London and King’s College London, Quell has developed a platform that works by ensuring the sustained expression of forkhead box P3 (FOXP3) in Treg cells. This protein is a crucial regulator of Treg cell gene expression and is thus involved in much of their suppressive activity.
Quell’s pipeline is headed by QEL-001, a Treg therapy to help acceptance in liver transplantations, currently in a Phase II trial (NCT05234190). Three other programmes are at the preclinical stage, including QEL-003 for IBD in collaboration with AstraZeneca.
The licence option comes at a time of uncertainty for AstraZeneca, whose shares dropped last week following US President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to appoint vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy Jr as head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). AstraZeneca, which made a name for itself in the Covid-19 pandemic with its vaccine co-developed with the University of Oxford, is currently embarking on a major US expansion, including a bolster to manufacturing capacity in the country.
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