Suda Pharmaceuticals - A potentially transformational acquisition

SUDA recently announced that it will be licensing an invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cell therapy platform from Imperial College London that can be used in conjunction with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to target blood cancers. Specific financial terms are undisclosed but include an upfront fee, annual maintenance fees, milestones and a single-digit royalty. There are a number of potential benefits of CAR-iNKT, including the prospect of being an allogeneic ‘off-the-shelf’ therapy, significantly simplifying the manufacture of the therapy and its delivery to patients. The therapy is expected to enter the clinic in 12–24 months.