Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Adicet Bio, Inc. entered a collaboration and licensing agreement to develop next-gen immune cell therapeutics. The companies will engineer immune cells with fully human chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) and T-cell receptors (TCRs) directed to disease-specific cell surface antigens to enable the precise killing of tumor cells. The collaboration aims to generate multiple clinical candidates for various hematological and solid tumor cancers.

Regeneron and Adicet will collaborate to identify and validate appropriate targets. Adicet will receive $25 million upfront, as well as research funding over a five-year research term. Regeneron has the option to obtain development and commercial rights for a certain number of the product candidates, and Adicet has an option to participate in the development and commercialization.

“Adicet’s immune cell technology, developed under the leadership of pioneering biotech executive Aya Jakobovits, complements our growing suite of immuno-oncology approaches and therapeutics,” said George D. Yancopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Regeneron and president of Regeneron Laboratories. “Our proprietary technology platforms give us the ability to develop optimized monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates and now CARs and TCRs for engineered immune cell therapeutics, opening the door to many different combination approaches to treat cancer patients.”

“We are excited to join forces with Regeneron, an industry leader in the development of cutting-edge platform technologies and immune-based products,” said Aya Jakobovits, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Adicet. “The collaboration leverages complementary strengths and technologies of the two companies and expands Adicet’s ability to grow a broad pipeline of novel immune cell products to fight different cancer indications.”