Scottish CAR-T Biotech Adds Another Stellar Partner to Its Roster

TC Biopharm has signed a new pharma partner, the Japan-based NIPRO Corporation, who will give the biotech a leg up in the CAR-T game.

Hot on the heels of the two huge CAR-T acquisitions of Juno and Kite, Japanese pharma NIPRO Corporation is planting a foot in the game by partnering with Scotland-based TC Biopharm to co-develop blood cancer treatments. The deal gives NIPRO the rights to commercialize resulting products worldwide. No financial details were disclosed, but the biotech says it validates the potential of its gamma-delta T cell-based platform to earn over the company over $1B before it reaches the market.

This news comes a few months after TC Biopharm closed a deal with another big name, bluebird bio. While CAR-T therapies are attracting a lot of interest, those based on gamma delta T cells in particular seem promising. As CEO Paolo Paoletti of another such company, GammaDelta Therapeutics, explained to me, these cells could be very effective at invading and killing solid tumors as a result of their tissue residence and could be the beginning of a new wave of new and improved CAR-T therapies.

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