Laurus Labs further invests in gene therapy tech, increases its stake in lmmunoACT to 33.86%

Furthering its access to novel cell and gene therapy technology, Hyderabad based pharmaceutical company Laurus Labs on Wednesday acquired an additional 7.24 per cent stake in Immunoadoptive Cell Therapy Private Limited (lmmunoACT), an advanced cell and gene therapy company for Rs 80 crore.

Laurus Labs’ stake in ImmunoACT will now increase to 33.86 per cent on fully diluted basis post completion of the deal.  The company had already acquired 26.62 per cent of stake in ImmunoACT in November 2021. ImmunoACT has portfolio of Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cells (CAR-T cells) therapy assets under various development stages for the treatment of multiple auto immune diseases and oncology indications.

This fresh infusion of capital, Laurus Labs said, will enable ImmunoACT to fast track the additional supply of the lead candidate HCAR-19 for cancer along with the further expansion of the multi-location good manufacturing practices (GMP) facilities for manufacturing CAR-T cells treatment for blood cancers to support the growing need for scalable manufacturing.

"This investment further strengthens Laurus Labs’ commitment to access novel Cell and Gene Therapy technology and enhance its affordability for patients. This investment will further help ImmunoACT to gear up for the manufacture of more treatments,” Satyanarayana Chava, Founder and CEO of Laurus labs said. “This acquisition is also a step towards our commitment to promote and access novel technologies and making it commercially viable in unmet medical needs of auto immune diseases and oncology. We are looking to invest further in disruptive innovation with a disciplined approach, to enable our strategic partners and customers to bring these promising therapies to patients,” he said.

The company said that additionally, some promoters and senior management of Laurus Labs would also acquire in ImmunoACT for a 0.54 per cent stake before this investment for approximately Rs 4 crore at the same price and terms through secondary purchases. Meanwhile, the current promoters of ImmunoACT will continue to lead the management and operations of ImmunoACT, Laurus labs said in listing.

Laurus Labs’ earlier investment in ImmunoACT in November 2021 supported ImmunoACT in creating GMP manufacturing facility along with an R&D facility at Navi Mumbai and currently conducting Phase II study at various hospitals including Tata Memorial Hospital. Phase I data was presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) during November 2022 that showed a favorable balance of efficacy and toxicity with low grade cytokine release syndrome. Cytokine release syndrome is an inflammatory syndrome with fever and multiple organ dysfunctions associated with CAR-T cell therapy.

“With the Laurus first tranche investment, ImmunoACT established GMP facility along with state of the art R & D facility and sufficiently met funding requirement for conducting on-going Phase II trial. The Current investment will help us to gear up to service more patients across India. We are expecting further collaboration to bring CAR T technologies to the needy Indian Patients at affordable price,” Rahul Purwar, Founder and Chairman of ImmunoACT said.

India has a growing cancer burden as the country is expected to see a 12% rise in cancer cases during the next five years to 29.8 million, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research. According to GlobalData, a data and analytics company, India is still in the nascent stage of developing potential therapies as currently only four cell/gene therapy molecules are being developed in the country.

Neha Myneni, Pharma Analyst at GlobalData earlier in August 2022 had said that as Laurus Labs backed startup ImmunoACT plans to make HCAR-19 available in India through various cancer hospitals across the country from 2023, this brings a ray of hope for blood cancer and lymphoma patients to avail these therapies at much more affordable cost i.e., Rs 2-3 million (approximately $25,000 – $38,000). The success of these pipeline candidates and their eventual affordability to patients is likely to have a significant impact on the treatment of these incurable diseases both in India as well as on a global scale.