Allogene Therapeutics (ALLO) has a pipeline full of immunotherapy products it is developing to treat different types of cancer. Specifically, its platform relies on allogeneic CAR-T therapies. The latest partnership involves Notch Therapeutics and its own technology platform to treat cancer. Both companies will develop induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) AlloCAR therapy products using Notch's technology. This will help diversify Allogene's pipeline and give it access to treat a few types of hematological malignancies.

Allogene Therapeutics has formed a worldwide collaboration and license agreement with Notch Therapeutics. This agreement was made so that both companies could research and develop iPSC AlloCAR therapy products to treat a few types of hematological malignancies. Such hematological malignancies include: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), leukemia, and multiple myeloma (MM). The development of the iPSC AlloCAR therapy products using either T-cells or natural killer cells will be done using Notch's Engineered Thymic Niche (ETN) platform. Why has Allogene chosen to make such a partnership? There are many advantages to tapping into the ETN platform. First and Foremost, pluripotent stem cells provide an inexhaustible source. Meaning an inexhaustible source that could be used as any cell type to treat a variety of diseases. That's just one advantage this technology has. Further advantages for this type of technology include lower cost of manufacturing such treatments and larger industrial scale. There is something even more important on why I believe such a partnership was made. While both companies are targeting a few hematological malignancies, iPSC AlloCar therapy products could also be utilized for other indications such as: Aging, autoimmune diseases, and infectious diseases. If early evidence seems promising in hematological malignancies, then I believe there will be a great interest to explore this technology in other areas. Under the terms of the agreement, Notch will first focus on taking care of the preclinical work with respect to the iPSC AlloCAR T cells. Allogene will work on the products when they get to the clinical stage and obtain exclusive worldwide rights to commercialize them. Notch doesn't go home empty-handed though. It obtains some perks as well, like:

The point here is that Allogene gains access to a technology that prides itself on providing a renewable source cell type of a product that could change the scope of CAR-T treatment.

According to the 10-Q SEC Filing, Allogene Therapeutics has cash, cash equivalents, and investments of $601.9 million as of September 30, 2019. The company believes that it has enough cash on hand to fund its operations for at least 12 months from the date of the 10-Q SEC Filing. Since this was filed on November 5, 2019, this means cash will run out sometime by November 5, 2020. Although, biotechs don't wait until the end of their estimates to raise additional cash. I would say that the biotech may need to raise cash sometime during mid-2020. The company has a lot of cash on hand because of the IPO it had done back in October of 2018. At that time, it has been the largest biotech IPO established in 2018. That's because it raised a total of $343.3 million in net proceeds.

Allogene has its own CAR-T technology it utilizes to develop treatments for cancer. Specifically, it has a huge focus on developing allogeneic CAR-T therapy treatments. The advantage of allogeneic is being able to produce treatment for cancer patients at a quicker rate compared to autologous therapy. For allogeneic CAR-T treatment, it is considered to be "off the shelf" therapy. Meaning patients won't have to wait for treatment. That's because, with autologous therapy, cells from the patient have to be extracted first, engineered, and then delivered back into the patient. This process takes about 4 weeks. On the other hand, for allogeneic CAR-T therapy, the treatment is ready to go and just needs to be administered to the patient. As with most CAR-T companies, Allogene is heavily focused on hematological malignancies (blood cancer). However, it won't just leave it to its own products in the pipeline to advance drugs in the clinic for hematological malignancies. That's why it has also chosen to partner with Notch Therapeutics for its iPSC AlloCAR therapy products. The key advantage being that Notch's technology provides an inexhaustible source of cells to utilize. A big risk for the partnership is that it will take some time to get this program into clinical trials in humans. In addition, there is no guarantee that this program will ultimately succeed in late-stage studies. Having said that, I believe that this will help Allogene expand the market opportunity in the hematology space. Especially, since the CAR-T therapy space is quite crowded when it comes to treating hematological malignancies.

This article is published by Terry Chrisomalis, who runs the Biotech Analysis Central pharmaceutical service on Seeking Alpha Marketplace. If you like what you read here and would like to subscribe to, I'm currently offering a two-week free trial period for subscribers to take advantage of. My service offers a deep-dive analysis of many pharmaceutical companies. The Biotech Analysis Central SA marketplace is $49 per month, but for those who sign up for the yearly plan will be able to take advantage of a 33.50% discount price of $399 per year.

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Allogene Moves Forward With CAR-T Therapy Pipeline - Seeking Alpha