Blackstone Life Sciences, Cellex Cell Professionals, and Intellia Therapeutics Launch New CAR T-Cell Company

Blackstone Life Sciences has committed $250 million towards the launch of a new autologous and allogeneic universal chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy company, along with Intellia Therapeutics, Inc. and Cellex Cell Professionals GmbH, the parent company of GEMoaB GmbH, a clinical-stage cell therapy company. The new company will combine GEMoaB’s world-leading clinical-stage universal CAR-T platforms with Intellia’s differentiated allogeneic cell platform and CRISPR cell engineering.

Intellia Therapeutics is a clinical-stage, leading genome editing company focused on developing curative therapeutics using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Cellex Cell Professionals GmbH holds the clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company GEMoaB, which is focused on the development of next-generation immunotherapies and cell therapies for hard-to-treat cancers.

The new company will be headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and will acquire Cellex’s subsidiary GEMoaB GmbH with established offices and labs in Dresden, Germany. GEMoaB is developing a switchable universal platform to improve the therapeutic window of CAR T-cell therapies. 

Andrew Schiermeier, Ph.D., current Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Intellia, will lead the launch as President and Chief Executive Officer. “This launch represents the first of many steps to addressing the various limitations that currently exist in the cell therapy space, and I am both humbled and excited to be leading the creation of this company with a team of extremely talented individuals,” said Schiermeier. “Bringing together GEMoaB’s universal CAR-T platform with Intellia’s differentiated allogeneic T cell platform and CRISPR-based cell engineering provides a unique opportunity to move cell therapy technology to new heights. Our focus is on providing significantly safer and more efficacious treatments to patients who are suffering from hard-to-treat cancers and autoimmune diseases.”

Business transformation and responsibilities

Key components of the new company upon formation include the following highlights:

• The new company will have an exclusive license to combine Intellia’s CRISPR/Cas9 allogeneic platform with GEMoaB’s switchable, universal CAR T-cell platforms (UniCAR and RevCAR)

• GEMoaB will become a subsidiary of the newly established company and will continue to advance its clinical stage CAR T-cell programs.

• The new company and Intellia will also simultaneously enter into a co-development and co-funding (Co-Co) agreement to develop an allogeneic universal CAR T-cell product for an immuno-oncology indication. Intellia will have one additional option to enter into a second Co-Co agreement from selected allogeneic universal CAR T-cell therapy products that the parties will develop under the collaboration.

• Blackstone Life Sciences, Intellia and Cellex (and certain related entities) will each have equal ownership of the new company.