Poseida Licenses Janssen’s Centyrins to Develop CAR Therapies

 Poseida Therapeutics, Inc. (Poseida), a private biotechnology company spun out of Transposagen Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (Transposagen), and headquartered in San Diego, CA, has announced that they have entered into a worldwide License Agreement with Janssen Biotech, Inc. (Janssen) to research, develop, manufacture and commercialize licensed products using Janssen Centyrin technology.

Centyrins are a class of Janssen proprietary alternative scaffold molecules that can be engineered to bind to target proteins with an interface of similar size to those used by antibodies. Critical to the use of Centyrins to treat human disease, Janssen has developed a number of Centyrin libraries that are used for in vitro selection of Centyrin molecules that bind to protein targets with high affinity and specificity.

Poseida has entered into an exclusive license to use Centyrins to develop pharmaceutical products containing or comprised of autologous T-cells or any NK- or NK-like cells expressing a Centyrin molecule or Centyrin Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) molecule. CAR therapies have shown promise in early human clinical trials for the treatment of blood cancers. As part of the Centyrin license, Poseida will gain access to Centyrin molecules against three existing targets, including one that Poseida is developing in house as part of an autologous CAR-T therapy to treat multiple myeloma.

Under the License Agreement, Poseida gains the rights to screen the Centyrin library to identify and develop Centyrin molecules against new cancer antigens that Poseida identifies or licenses, including solid tumor antigens. Poseida will pay Janssen an undisclosed upfront fee and potential development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments.

“This License Agreement further strengthens our existing synergistic drug development collaboration and grants Poseida access to a powerful Janssen platform. The Centyrin technology can be used to develop binding molecules to numerous cancer antigens and paves the way towards cutting-edge CAR-based immuno-oncology therapeutics, which may eventually treat many different cancers that currently have unsatisfactory treatment options,” said Eric Ostertag, CEO of Poseida.