NEW YORK – Immix Biopharma's newly formed subsidiary Nexcella said on Wednesday that it has licensed the multiple myeloma CAR T-cell therapy NXC-201 from Hadassah Medical Organization in Israel.
Immix launched Nexcella as a subsidiary for the purpose of developing the autologous CAR T-cell therapy and other cell therapies down the line. Under the terms of the agreement, Los Angeles-based Nexcella will be an independently financed company and will hold the rights to develop and commercialize NXC-201 outside of Israel, Cyprus, and the rest of the Middle East — regions where Hadassah's technology transfer company Hadasit Medical Research Services & Development and BIRAD Research and Development Company hold rights to the treatment.
Nexcella will pay these entities $1.5 million upfront, a $50,000 annual fee, as well as mid-single-digit royalties on net sales of the therapy and up to $20 million for net sales exceeding $700 million. Nexcella will also contribute $13 million over four years to fund clinical trials of NXC-201, a therapy designed to target the B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) on the surface of multiple myeloma cells.
In an ongoing Phase I clinical trial, 85 percent of 20 relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma patients on the treatment responded, and 71 percent had a complete response and stringent complete response. The patients dosed so far in this trial had a median of six prior lines of therapy.
The treatment, which is given in the outpatient setting, has caused only low-grade cytokine release syndrome lasting a median of two days in some patients, Nexcella highlighted. According to the company, however, NXC-201 has not caused any neurotoxicities or immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome as of the June data cutoff for the Phase I study. Nexcella will expand the trial into a Phase II portion and track how NSC-201 impacts patients' overall survival, progression-free survival, and response rates.
NXC-201 has also shown preliminary efficacy in patients with the non-cancer condition amyloidosis.
Because Nexcella will be an independently financed company, Immix does not expect the transaction to have much of an impact on its financial position. ThinkEquity advised Immix Biopharma in this transaction.