NEW YORK – Twist Bioscience and MediSix Therapeutics on Thursday announced a collaboration to discover novel antibodies against five undisclosed targets and develop novel CAR T-cell therapies.
Twist will use its library capabilities to identify five novel antibodies directed against targets provided by MediSix, which in turn will use its platform to create CAR T-cell therapies using these antibodies for malignancies and autoimmune diseases without any existing CAR T-cell therapies.
Under the terms of the collaboration, Twist will receive an upfront payment from MediSix and will be eligible for additional payments based on clinical and regulatory milestones, as well as royalties on product sales should the therapies advance to commercialization.
"We look forward to collaborating with MediSix to overcome existing challenges of using cell therapy approaches to treat T-cell malignancies, often because of a lack of antigen targets specific to the cancer," Twist CEO and Cofounder Emily Leproust said in a statement. "Pairing MediSix's novel targets with our ability to discover and optimize antibodies to efficiently target these devastating cancers has the potential to add an important and needed therapeutic option for patients."
According to Leproust, the fact that MediSix has locations in both Boston and Singapore gives South San Francisco, California-based Twist a new global footprint in the Asia Pacific region.