TCR² Therapeutics & Arbor Biotechnologies Establish Collaboration to Advance Allogeneic TRuC-T Cell Therapies

TCR² Therapeutics Inc. and Arbor Biotechnologies recently announced the two companies have entered into a strategic research collaboration and non-exclusive license agreement focused on the further development of a defined set of allogeneic TRuC-T cell therapies. The collaboration leverages Arbor’s proprietary CRISPR gene-editing technology, which is tailored to address the underlying pathology of genetic diseases, and TCR²’s first-in-class TRuC platform, which has demonstrated clinical activity in multiple treatment-refractory mesothelin-expressing solid tumor indications with its lead autologous program gavo-cel.

“Our autologous TRuC-T cells have already established clinical activity in multiple difficult-to-treat solid tumors without being dependent on HLA, thus allowing our therapies to be used on the broadest patient population. We believe allogeneic TRuC-T cell therapies will further extend this impact by accelerating patient access while reducing manufacturing cost,” said Garry Menzel, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of TCR² Therapeutics. “The collaboration with Arbor enables us to evaluate multiple allogeneic candidates with novel enhancements and advance a lead candidate in 2022, consistent with our vision of continuing to innovate novel therapies for cancer patients suffering with solid tumors.”

“The collaboration with TCR² allows us to leverage Arbor’s proprietary discovery engine and gene editing technologies with an established cell therapy leader developing life-changing treatments for serious cancers,” said Devyn Smith, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Arbor. “This agreement reinforces the versatility and strength of Arbor’s platform and furthers our strategic vision of expanding the impact of Arbor’s gene editors through partnerships with leading organizations developing engineered cell therapies.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Arbor will receive an upfront cash payment and is also eligible to receive additional milestone payments based upon the successful achievement of development, regulatory and commercial milestones across a selected number of programs. In addition, TCR² will pay tiered royalties on future net sales on any products that may result from this collaboration.

TCR² Therapeutics Inc. is a clinical-stage cell therapy company developing a pipeline of novel T cell therapies for cancer patients suffering from solid tumors. The company is focused on the discovery and development of product candidates against novel and complex targets utilizing its proprietary T cell receptor (TCR) Fusion Construct T cells (TRuC-T cells). The TRuC platform is designed to specifically recognize and kill cancer cells by harnessing signaling from the entire TCR, independent of human leukocyte antigens (HLA). For more information, visit www.tcr2.com.

Arbor Biotechnologies is a life sciences company discovering and developing the next generation of genetic medicines based on wholly owned genomic editors discovered from its machine learning/AI driven discovery platform. Since its founding by Feng Zhang, David Walt, David Scott, and Winston Yan, Arbor has built the most extensive toolbox of proprietary genomic editors in the industry. Using the discovery platform, Arbor can discover, screen, and engineer novel editing enzymes and effectors that can then be tailored to the underlying cause of disease to result in potentially curative medicines for patients. As Arbor continues to advance its pipeline toward the clinic with an initial focus in liver and CNS disease, the Company has also partnered with leading companies on several gene editing and ex vivo cell therapy programs to broaden the reach of its novel nuclease technology. For more information, visit arbor.bio.