Biopharmaceutical company, Cellectis announced that the first patient has been treated in the phase I study of UCART19 in paediatric acute B lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL) at the University College of London (UCL). This UCART19 clinical trial is sponsored by Servier in close collaboration with Pfizer.

The pediatric phase I is an open label, non-comparative, monocenter study to evaluate the safety and ability of UCART19 to induce molecular remission in paediatric patients with relapsed or refractory CD19 positive B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia ahead of planned allogeneic haematopoeitic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT).

Cellectis will receive a milestone payment from Servier of an undisclosed amount.

UCART19 is an allogeneic CAR T-cell product candidate developed for treatment of CD19-expressing haematological malignancies, gene edited with TALEN. UCART19 is initially being developed in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Cellectis’ approach with UCART19 is based on the preliminary positive results from clinical trials using autologous products based on the CAR technology, and has the potential to overcome the limitation of the current autologous approach by providing an allogeneic, frozen, “off-the-shelf” T cell based medicinal product.

In November 2015, Servier acquired the exclusive rights to UCART19 from Cellectis. Following further agreements, Servier and Pfizer began collaborating on a joint clinical development program for this cancer immunotherapy. Pfizer has exclusive rights from Servier to develop and commercialize UCART19 in the United States, while Servier retains exclusive rights for all other countries.

Cellectis is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing immunotherapies based on gene edited CAR-T cells (UCART).  The company’s mission is to develop a new generation of cancer therapies based on engineered T-cells.