LR-02

Sanofi is partnering up with Cellectis on their allogeneic CAR-Ts. Cellectis struck a deal to use the French pharma’s drug alemtuzumab (Lemtrada, an MS agent) as part of its lymphodepletion regimen — used to sideline host immune cells and improve CAR-T cell expansion and persistence. The Sanofi drug is already used in some clinical trials, and now the pharma giant is on the hook for clinical studies as they engage in negotiations over a commercial pact. — John Carroll Bristol Myers Squibb, Evotec set up partnership to advance UK science German firm Evotec has launched a new funding mechanism alongside Bristol Myers Squibb to advance research at the UK’s top universities. Evotec and Bristol Myers jointly launched beLAB1407, a $20 million academic BRIDGE — a program created by Evotec to advance academic research — to the develop early-stage therapeutic concepts from the universities of Birmingham, Edinburgh, Nottingham, and Dundee, the companies said. The goal is to take promising science from each of those universities into spinoff companies with the help of Evotec’s drug development platform. Evotec’s first BRIDGE fund — BRIDGE ‘LAB282’ — launched in November 2016 focused on research from Oxford University. Since then, the company has set up a series of those partnerships alongside “a variety of academic, Pharma and venture capital partners across Europe and North America,” the company said. — Kyle Blankenship Swiss oncology umbrella firm kicks off with 3 subsidiaries in tow A new oncology development umbrella firm emerged from stealth Wednesday with $1.1 million in seed financing to get its asset-centric business model off the ground. Switzerland’s Laevoroc Oncology launched with three subsidiaries, each containing an oncology asset, aiming to build a joint pipeline. Those three firms are: Laevoroc Chemotherapy, focused on lead candidate LR 06, an oral gemcitabine prodrug for maintenance therapy in pancreatic, ovarian and breast cancers; Laevoroc Immunology, with lead compound LR09 to treat leukemia relapse following bone marrow transplantation; and a third “core” subsidiary with LR02, a first-in-class CNS ATR inhibitor. With its seed funds in the bank, Laevoroc is actively pursuing a Series A, the company said in a statement. — Kyle Blankenship