Alloy Therapeutics Inc. ("Alloy"), a biotechnology ecosystem company dedicated to democratizing access to cutting edge drug discovery technologies, announced today a strategic collaboration and license agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (NYSE:TAK) to develop Takeda's proprietary induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived CAR-T cell platform (iCAR-T) and iPSC-derived CAR-NK platform (iCAR-NK). Alloy will focus on accelerating the development of key therapies to overcome solid and hematological malignancies.
iCAR-T technology was developed as part of the T-CiRA joint research program between Takeda and the Center for iPS Research and Application (CiRA) at Kyoto University. The core technology to differentiate iPSC into immune cells originates from CiRA's Shin Kaneko's laboratory. iCAR-T has potential to develop 'off-the-shelf' cell therapies, offering the potential for best-in-class performance with enhanced potency, and significantly lower manufacturing costs compared to autologous cell therapy.
