Medigene on Sept. 29 agreed an alliance with Bluebird centered on
its T cell receptor (TCR) technology, boosting its share price by
more than 16 percent on the day. That has helped it to re-enter
Germany's technology index TECDAX, effective on Monday.
The method is based on modifying T cells, one of the immune system's
main weapons, to target specific tumor cells, but Medigene expects a
market launch to be at least four and a half years away.
"Many firms that we had tried to contact before the deal are now
reaching out to us. There is a palpable increase in interest,"
Medigene's Chief Operating Officer Dave Lemus told Reuters in an
interview published on Monday, adding that the company now hopes to
sign another alliance.
Bluebird is best known for its progress in a class of customized
cancer drugs known as chimeric antigen receptor T-cells, or CAR-Ts.
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Other biotech firms working on T cell receptor (TCR) technologies
include Kite Pharma or Emergent Technologies Inc.
(Writing by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Tina Bellon)
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