Allogene pulls in $288M IPO to target proven CAR-T antigens

After setting its sights on a $100 million IPO, CAR-T player Allogene Therapeutics has nearly tripled that, pricing the deal at the high end of the range and raising $288 million. Its stock price leaped as high as 39% on its first day of trading.
在将目标锁定在1亿美元的IPO之后，CAR-T player Allogene Therapeutics将IPO价格提高了近两倍，将IPO价格定在区间高端，筹资2.88亿美元。该公司股价在上市首日大涨39%。
 
The company started out in April with a whopping $300 million series A round and a suite of allogeneic CAR-T assets developed at Cellectis. One might have expected a biotech with that much runway to coast for a little bit, but that’s the last thing that cofounders Arie Belldegrun and David Chang did. In September, they went on to close a $120 million private round and file for Allogene’s IPO.
今年4月，该公司以3亿美元的巨额a轮融资和Cellectis开发的一套异基因汽车t资产起家。人们可能会期待生物技术会有这么多跑道，但这是联合创始人阿里·贝德格伦(Arie Belldegrun)和大卫·张(David Chang)做的最后一件事。今年9月，他们完成了一轮1.2亿美元的私人融资，并申请了Allogene s IPO。
 
Along the way, Belldegrun and Chang—the former Kite executives who created one of the first CAR-T treatments—recruited Eric Schmidt, the longtime Cowen analyst, as their chief financial officer.
在此过程中，贝尔德隆(Belldegrun)和张长福(Chang)聘请了长期担任考恩分析师的埃里克•施密特(Eric Schmidt)担任首席财务官。
 
When asked about the whirlwind that has been the past six months, Schmidt said: “I think we at Allogene have been very fortunate to have inherited … assets that make for an exciting story … in an exciting area of therapeutic development in the CAR-T space. We have on our side Arie Belldegrun and David Chang; those are guys who have been here before, know the business, know the landscape and know the people … I don’t think there are too many teams that can claim to have the experience that we have.”
当被问及过去6个月的“旋风”时，施密特说:“我认为我们在Allogene公司非常幸运，因为我们继承了一些资产，在CAR-T领域令人兴奋的治疗发展领域创造了一个激动人心的故事。” 我们这边有阿里·贝德隆和大卫·张;这些人以前来过这里，了解业务，了解环境，了解人们。我认为很少有团队可以拥有我们所拥有的经验。
 
The company is hoping to “follow in the footsteps of folks like Kite, Juno and Novartis,” the companies that paved the way for CAR-T with autologous treatments, Schmidt said. These therapies are made from a patient’s own T cells, so manufacturing can be complex and time-consuming. Allogeneic ones use donor T cells, which can be stored and used off the shelf.
施密特说，该公司希望追随Kite、Juno和诺华等公司的脚步，这些公司用自体疗法为CAR-T铺平了道路。这些疗法是由患者自身的T细胞制成的，因此制造过程可能复杂且耗时。同种异体的细胞使用供体T细胞，这些T细胞可以储存起来，在货架上就可以使用。
 
If Allogene can pull it off, Schmidt said, the allogeneic approach could “be disruptive to the landscape.”

Allogene’s lead asset UCART19, is a CD19-targeting CAR-T treatment that is currently in phase 1 trials in children and adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Allogene plans to move it into registrational trials in the second half of next year, according to an SEC filing. It picked UCART19, as well as more than a dozen preclinical CAR-T assets from Pfizer, which had licensed them from Cellectis in 2014 and 2015.

The new raise will also advance a slate of earlier-stage candidates, including ALLO-715, a BCMA-targeting CAR-T for multiple myeloma, ALLO-819, in development for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and ALLO-501, which is structurally identical to UCART19, but is manufactured in a different way. The plan is to submit INDs for ALLO-715 and ALLO-501 in 2019.

While the bulk of Allogene’s focus is on two proven CAR-T antigens—CD19 and BCMA—the company has disclosed three new targets: Flt3, CD70 and DLL3. The company will be going after blood cancers as they’re “a bit lower-risk and probable a little bit easier to crack” than solid tumors, Schmidt said.

“But we do have aspirations of moving into the solid tumor space.”

Finally, tucked into the “Use of Proceeds” section of Allogene’s S-1 was a note that said the IPO funds could be used to in-license or acquire new assets.

“There’s no firm plan to do anything in the near term, to be honest. We think we have all that we need,” Schmidt said. “There’s no need to check a specific box or to collaborate with anyone in particular. But we are humble enough to realize that we are in a fast-paced, complex and competitive environment. Should the team identify something we need to do [in order to] take the field forward, it’s nice to have the cash to do that.”

In Schmidt’s words, Allogene has been “born on second base,” with the cash, assets and talent it has been able to secure. Now all it has to do is put them to work.