• Allogene’s AlloCAR T™ Autoimmune Disease Platform Leverages Arbor’s CRISPR Gene-Editing Technology
  • First Allogeneic CAR T Phase 1 Clinical Trial in Autoimmune Disease Expected to Initiate in Early 2025

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA and CAMBRIDGE, MA, USA I March 12, 2024 I Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALLO), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of allogeneic CAR T (AlloCAR T) products for cancer and autoimmune disease, and Arbor Biotechnologies, Inc. (“Arbor”), a biotechnology company discovering and developing the next generation of genetic medicines, today announced a non-exclusive, global gene editing licensing agreement for use of Arbor’s proprietary CRISPR gene-editing technology in Allogene’s next generation AlloCAR T platform for the treatment of autoimmune disease (AID).

“The potential for CAR T as a therapeutic option for autoimmune disease has captured the collective imagination of the scientific community,” said Zachary Roberts, M.D., Ph.D., Executive Vice President of Research & Development and Chief Medical Officer of Allogene. “Accordingly, this excitement created a new field for CAR T that has become quickly crowded, making differentiation key for future success. This agreement provides us access to Arbor’s proprietary gene-editing technology and know-how, allowing us to develop what we believe will be the most effective and broadly accessible CAR T approach for the treatment of autoimmune disease.”

Allogene has applied its deep understanding of CAR T research and development to design next-generation allogeneic CAR T investigational products with a goal of reduced or chemotherapy-free conditioning that the Company believes can sustain the scale of the AID market while also meeting the unique requirements for these patients where they seek care. Allogene’s first AID AlloCAR T investigational product is expected to enter Phase 1 clinical trials in early 2025.

“Our strategy has long been to align ourselves with industry leaders who are working to harness the power of gene editing to change treatment paradigms and improve patient outcomes,” said Devyn Smith, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Arbor. “We look forward to our collaboration with Allogene as they leverage our extensive gene-editing technologies to develop novel, differentiated allogeneic CAR T therapeutics for autoimmune diseases.”

About Arbor Biotechnologies
Arbor Biotechnologies® is a next-generation gene editing company based in Cambridge, Mass. Combining the promise of CRISPR with advanced computational AI-driven discovery, high-throughput screening, and robust protein engineering approaches, our scientific co-founders Feng Zhang and David Walt laid the groundwork for our proprietary discovery engine, that has yielded an extensive portfolio of novel genomic editors. We envision a future of gene editing that extends beyond simple knockdowns to include reverse transcriptases, nuclease excisions and large insertions. This affords us the potential to treat a broad spectrum of patients, from those with ultra-rare to the most common genetically defined diseases. Guided by a deep understanding of the molecular basis of disease and our access to a unique suite of optimized genomic editors, we are rapidly advancing our development programs with an initial focus on genetically defined liver-mediated and CNS diseases. As we advance toward the clinic with our first therapeutic candidate in primary hyperoxaluria type I, we look to expand our strategic partnerships around in vivo genomic editing across multiple therapeutic areas and ex vivo cell therapy programs to broaden the reach of our novel gene editing technologies.For more information, visit arbor.bio.

About Allogene Therapeutics
Allogene Therapeutics, with headquarters in South San Francisco, is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T cell (AlloCAR T™) products for cancer and autoimmune disease. Led by a management team with significant experience in cell therapy, Allogene is developing a pipeline of “off-the-shelf” CAR T cell product candidates with the goal of delivering readily available cell therapy on-demand, more reliably, and at greater scale to more patients. For more information, please visit www.allogene.com, and follow @AllogeneTx on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.

SOURCE: Allogene Therapeutics