Pfizer Steps into the CAR-T Immunotherapy Field With Cellectis Deal

U.S. drugmaker Pfizer, which failed last month in a $118 billion bid to buy AstraZeneca , said on Wednesday it had signed a deal with French biotech Cellectis to develop immunotherapy drugs in cancer.

Boosting the body's immune system to fight tumours is a hot area for drug research and was one of the factors that attracted Pfizer to Britain's AstraZeneca - along with the potential to cut costs and taxes. The technology used by Cellectis involves reprogramming immune system cells to hunt out cancer and represents a different approach to that used by drugs under development at AstraZeneca.

The French company's research is still at an early stage but it hopes to start clinical trials in 2015, initially with a drug for leukaemia that it has already partnered with unlisted pharmaceuticals group Servier.

Press release: http://reut.rs/1l2FNFt

Source: Reuters