Avalon GloboCare inks definitive agreement to acquire Chinese cell therapy company Senlang Biotechnology

Avalon GloboCare Corp (NASDAQ:AVCO) has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Hebei Senlang Biotechnology Co Ltd, the largest cell therapy company in northern China in terms of biomanufacturing scale, breadth and depth of clinical development programs, and pre-clinical research.  SenlangBio’s core technology platforms include chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells (CAR-T), allogeneic CAR Gamma Delta T-cells (CAR-γδT), and armored tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (armTILs), the company said. Avalon will acquire SenlangBio’s proprietary cellular therapy portfolio consisting of multiple autologous and allogeneic candidates, including both single-target therapies as well as “cocktail” combinations. Avalon plans to issue 81 million shares of its common stock to make the acquisition, and will seek approval from its shareholders. READ: Avalon GloboCare says CEO to chair S-layer nanotechnology, QTY code platforms session at 2021 World Stem Cell Summit To date, more than 300 patients have received one of SenlangBio’s 15 cell therapy candidates through investigator-initiated first-in-human clinical trials at 13 partnering hospitals, covering 9 indications with significant unmet medical needs. The company’s intellectual property includes 10 issued patents and 5 patents pending in China, as well as multiple “know-how” IPs The acquisition also includes the SenlangBio Clinical Laboratory, a wholly owned subsidiary of SenlangBio that provides third-party clinical testing services, including general biochemical, genomic and proteomic testing; and cell therapy related testing such as hematology, immunology, cancer biomarkers immuno-phenotyping and more. The lab is a 16,000 square-foot good manufacturing practice (GMP) facility for bio-manufacturing, bioprocessing, and quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) processes. It is equipped with five production lines dedicated to autologous CAR-T with an estimated annual capacity to produce 5,000-unit doses of CAR-T cell therapy products, as well as two universal production lines with an estimated annual output of 10,000-unit doses of CAR-γδT cell therapy products. “Today’s transaction is an affirmation of our commitment to bringing life-saving cell and gene therapies to market,” Avalon CEO David Jin said in a statement. “Harnessing advanced cell and gene engineering strategies, SenlangBio has developed unique core technology platforms for highly effective immune effector cell cancer therapies. Their autologous CAR-T candidates have already demonstrated significant positive responses in early clinical studies against relapsed and refractory B-cell and T-cell leukemias and lymphomas, with promising positive response rates and were well tolerated by patients.” Jin will remain CEO of Avalon, as well as co-CEO of the SenlangBio subsidiary. Jianqiang Li, CSO of SenlangBio, will be named the chief technology officer of Avalon and join its board of directors. SenlangBio’s assets include: Senl_1904B, an autologous anti-CD19 CAR-T for relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia. It has successfully completed a principal investigator-initiated first-in-human clinical trial which demonstrated 97.2% complete remission and had an Investigational New Drug application approved by China’s National Medical Products Administration to initiate a Phase I clinical trial in during the third quarter of 2021 Senl_NS7CAR,  a potential breakthrough treatment for T-cell blood cancers comprised of autologous anti-CD7 CAR-T for T-cell ALL and T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma. It has successfully completed PI-initiated first-in-human clinical trial, in which all 8 patients achieved complete remission. The plan is to file an IND application with the NMPA around the third quarter of 2021 “SenlangBio also brings a group of unique next-generation universal/allogeneic CAR-γδT candidates for the treatment of relapsed/refractory AML and MDS, as well as multiple solid tumor malignancies,” Jin said. “They have established a γδT cell-based universal CAR (GDUCARx) technology platform, which can expand γδT cells greater than 5,000-fold as compared to conventional cell culture protocols and have demonstrated strong cell killing of myeloid and solid tumor cells. We are very excited about this technology platform as an off-the-shelf CAR-γδT cell therapy modality that may significantly drive down costs and rapidly deliver life-saving cellular therapeutics to patients.” Avalon and SenlangBio have also entered into agreements with an institutional healthcare investor which has committed to invest approximately US$30 million in exchange for approximately 15.6% of the equity ownership of SenlangBio in a private placement financing. Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com Follow him on Twitter @andrew_kessel