NEW YORK – AstraZeneca on Monday said it signed an agreement to acquire EsoBiotec, a company that is developing in vivo engineered cell therapies, for up to $1 billion.
EsoBiotec's Engineered NanoBody Lentiviral (ENaBL) platform packages genetic instructions into immune-shielded lentiviral vectors to deliver them to targeted immune cells, such as T cells. The genetic payload reprograms the targeted immune cells to attack tumor cells in cancer or autoreactive cells in immune-mediated diseases.
Patients receiving an ENaBL therapy need not undergo removal of immune cells for processing and reinfusion, eliminating the complexity and lengthy turnaround time associated with conventional engineered cell therapies.
Earlier this year, Belgium-based EsoBiotec launched a Phase I clinical study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and preliminary efficacy and immunogenicity of its BCMA-targeted in vivo chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy ESO-T01. ESO-T01, which was developed using the ENaBL platform, is being tested in about 24 patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who had disease progression after at least two lines of therapy, are refractory to both immunomodulatory drugs and proteasome inhibitors, and have confirmed BCMA expression as determined by flow cytometry or immunohistochemistry.
According to Susan Galbraith, executive VP of oncology and hematology R&D at AstraZeneca, the company expects to be able to scale EsoBiotec's cell therapy platform to treat many more patients globally than conventional cell therapy.
Under the terms of the agreement, AstraZeneca will acquire all outstanding equity in EsoBiotec for up to $1 billion on a cash and debt-free basis, including an initial payment of $425 million upon closing and up to $575 in contingent consideration based on development and regulatory milestones. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2025.
AstraZeneca also on Monday signed an exclusive license agreement with Alteogen for its technology that enables the development of subcutaneous formulations of certain oncology assets. The product, ALT-B4, is a hyaluronidase developed on Alteogen's Hybrozyme platform, and it facilitates the subcutaneous administration of drugs typically given via an intravenous infusion by hydrolyzing hyaluronan in the extracellular matrix.