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Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. an antibody-centric, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing new treatments for cancer and other unmet medical needs, announced that it has entered into a binding term sheet to create a joint venture ("JV") with CHA Biotech Co. , LTD, of South Korea to develop and commercialize proprietary Chimeric Antigen Receptor ("CAR") modified cellular therapies based on CBT's Activated Killer Cell ("AKC") technology and five of Sorrento's CARs for all disease conditions, including oncology and infectious diseases. The JV covers products on a global basis with the exception of the Greater Chinese market.
In addition, Sorrento will obtain an exclusive license to develop and commercialize CBT's novel investigator-initiated trial stage AKC technology in major territories, including the United States, Europe, and with a co-exclusive license in China.
The AKC technology utilizes proprietary methodologies for the generation of highly activated, patient-derived Natural Killer (NK) Cells from 60 mL (60 cc or less than 3 fl. oz.) of peripheral blood. The expansion and activation process takes less than 3 weeks and yields sufficient cells for several treatment cycles. Notably, the resulting AKC product can be cryopreserved as efficient freeze-thaw protocols have been established. Thus far, more than 1,000 AKC batches have been produced and used in ongoing clinical studies in Japan. The treatment protocol does not require lympho-depleting preconditioning of the patients prior to administration of the AKC.
"In the rapidly growing field of NK Cell-based therapies, CBT's AKC technology stands out as one of the most promising and advanced platforms. We are excited to jointly develop CAR-modified AKC with our partners from CBT," said Dr. Henry Ji, President and CEO of Sorrento. Dr. Ji added, "We believe that NK Cell-based therapies have the potential to overcome safety and efficacy hurdles seen with current CAR-T products. The preclinical data as well as ongoing investigator- initiated studies for AKC have shown tremendous promise already and in our JV with CBT, we plan to develop the next-generation of AKC programs utilizing Sorrento's CAR technology. Sorrento will also drive the development and commercialization of AKC therapy in major markets working closely with our partners at CBT. We believe this will position Sorrento firmly at the forefront of Natural Killer Cell therapies."
