NEW YORK – Iovance Biotherapeutics and Cellectis announced Sunday that they were entering into a research collaboration and worldwide license agreement to develop personalized cancer therapies based on genetically edited tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs).
The worldwide license provides Iovance Biotherapeutics exclusive rights to Cellectis' TALEN gene editing technology for multiple gene targets to modify TILs for treating various cancers. Financial terms of the license stipulate that Iovance will make development, regulatory, and sales milestone payments to Cellectis, and make royalty payments based on the net sales of TALEN-modified TIL products.
Last May, Iovance worked with various big pharmaceutical companies and MD Anderson to open a series of basket trials investigating tumor infiltrating lymphocytes.
"We believe that we can genetically modify TIL to make a more tumor-reactive anti-cancer product," Iovance CEO Maria Fardis said in a statement, adding that the company plans to advance a TALEN(R)-edited TIL therapy into a clinical trial as quickly as possible.