Clinical stage biopharmaceutical company Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc's wholly-owned subsidiary, TNK Therapeutics, Inc., has acquired multiple preclinical and clinical stage chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T immunotherapy programmes as well as underlying CAR-T technology through the acquisition of two privately-held biotechnology companies. The CAR-T programmes focus on targeting solid tumours as well as infectious diseases.

"We are very pleased to enter the dynamic CAR-T immunotherapy field with these clinical stage assets targeting solid tumours, an area of great unmet medical need," said Dr. Henry Ji, president and chief executive officer of Sorrento.

"Especially exciting is the potential of combining the CAR-T therapies with Sorrento's immune-oncology programmes, such as anti-PD1 and anti-CTLA4 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). We recently in-licensed late clinical stage biobetter mAbs of the marketed antibodies infliximab, cetuximab, and basiliximab, as well as a biosimilar mAb of omalizumab. Utilising these assets, combination therapies of our biobetter mAb of basiliximab, an anti-CD25 mAb that has been used to target and deplete immunosuppressive regulatory T cells, or cetuximab, an anti-EGFR (epithelial growth factor receptor) mAb, may work synergistically with our CAR-T and CAR.TNK programmes for the treatment of solid tumours.”

“With these acquisitions of clinical and pre-clinical CAR constructs, TNK Therapeutics is now positioned to accelerate the development of in-house adoptive immunotherapies, including the "off-the-shelf" CAR.TNK programmes in our exclusive partnership with NantKwest. This breadth of complementary clinical programmes and enabling technologies truly positions TNK Therapeutics to be a leader in the field of adoptive immunotherapies."