NEW YORK – Dr. Reddy's Laboratories on Thursday said it will acquire an exclusive license to commercialize and develop Shenzhen Pregene Biopharma's autologous, anti-BCMA CAR T-cell therapy, PRG1801, for cancer patients in India.
Under the terms of their agreement, Dr. Reddy's will pay Pregene $5 million for the first indication of the treatment and up to $7.5 million in milestone payments for subsequent indications. Pregene is also eligible to receive double-digit royalties on up to $150 million in future sales of PRG1801 in India.
The deal, under which Dr. Reddy's gains the exclusive right to commercialize PRG1801 in India and develop the drug in future clinical trials, allows the company to expand its presence in the cell therapy space. Pregene, which will supply Dr. Reddy's with the lentiviral vectors to manufacture the cell therapy, gains entry into the large Indian market.
In China, PRG1801 is being studied as a treatment for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma in a Phase I trial. In a preliminary, investigator-initiated study of 34 relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma patients, 30 patients, or 88 percent, achieved an objective response to the CAR T-cell therapy, and 56 percent had a complete response. None of the patients experienced neurotoxicity and only 3 percent had grade 3 cytokine release syndrome.