BioNTech to buy Kite Gaithersburg manufacturing facility, Neoantigen TCR cell therapy RnD platform

"All Kite employees at the Gaithersburg facility will be offered employment with BioNTech prior to the date of closing. To support its growing cell therapy pipeline, BioNTech plans to further invest in the site including hiring additional personnel." the released stated.

Under the terms of the agreement, Kite will receive a one-time upfront payment from BioNTech to purchase Kite's indiviualized solid tumor neoantigen TCR discovery platform as well as the Gaithersburg R&D and clinical manufacturing facility. Financial terms were not disclosed. Kite's new manufacturing facility in Frederick, MD for commercial production of CAR T-cell therapy is not part of the purchase agreement.

"In order to serve more patients that need cell therapy today, Kite is rapidly growing both through global expansion and seeking new indications for our existing approved CAR T-cell therapies. This transaction will enable us to focus our energies and investment on accelerating the reach of our current CAR T-cell therapies and midterm pipeline," said Christi Shaw, Chief Executive Officer of Kite. "As a company solely focused on cell therapy for over a decade, our approach to solid tumors and allogeneic cell therapy will progress through a combination of both internal research and external partnerships as we are an excellent partner for likeminded companies that share our vision of the power of CAR T-cell therapy to create better outcomes for patients."

TCR therapy is a type of cellular immunotherapy designed to redirect the patient's immune system in order to recognize and target tumors. In contrast to CARs that recognize antigens on the cell surface, TCR therapy involves engineering an individual's T cells to express TCRs that can recognize peptide fragments from both intracellular and extracelluar antigens. As a result, complex TCR therapies may be more effective in the treatment of solid tumors. Neoantigens are immune targets derived from somatic mutations displayed by cancer cells offering the potential for more targeted anti-tumor activity. Kite's neoantigen TCR platform enables the development of individualized TCR therapies that are custom designed to target individual neoantigens on a patient's tumor. 

Cowen & Company LLC acted as financial advisor to Kite for this transaction.