Celyad announces new agreements with Celdara Medical and Dartmouth College
August 04 2017 - 1:00AM
Celyad (EURONEXT Brussels:CYAD) (EURONEXT Paris:CYAD)
(NASDAQ:CYAD), a pioneer in the discovery and development of CAR-T
cell therapies, and its fully-owned subsidiary OnCyte LLC, today
announced revised terms to their agreements with Celdara Medical
LLC and Dartmouth College.
Following encouraging initial results of the
THINK trial, which have led to increased confidence in the
long-term potential of Celyad’s CAR-T assets, Celyad has amended
its existing agreements with Celdara Medical, LLC and Dartmouth
College. Under the amended agreements Celyad will receive an
increased share of future revenues generated by these assets,
including revenues from its sublicensees. In return, Celyad will
pay Celdara Medical LLC and Dartmouth College an upfront payment of
$12.5 million (€10.6 million) and $12.5 million worth of Celyad
shares at a share price of €32.35 corresponding to a 14% premium
versus last trading day.
Christian Homsy, CEO of Celyad,
commented: “With our increased confidence in the clinical
opportunity of our lead product candidate CYAD-01 and the
significant potential value creation opportunities of our
allogeneic IP patents, we have decided to shift some of the value
of the original deal upfront, in order to increase our share of
potential future revenues from sublicenses. We believe these
revised agreements provide incremental value to Celyad’s
shareholders while the increased ownership of Celdara Medical in
Celyad signals a clear and long-term commitment to our development
of promising CAR-T cell therapies.”
Celyad obtained access to its CAR-T NKR cell
drug product candidates and related technology, including
technology licensed from Dartmouth College, in January 2015,
through its acquisition of OnCyte, LLC from Celdara Medical, LLC, a
privately-held U.S. biotechnology company. This portfolio included
three autologous CAR-T cell therapy products and an allogeneic T
cell platform. Since the acquisition, Celyad has focused on further
developing the portfolio and is currently in pre-clinical or
clinical phase for a number of product candidates.
Christian Homsy, CEO of Celyad,
further commented: “The upfront payment related to our deal with
Novartis covers partially the cash portion of our renewed
agreements with Celdara Medical LLC and Dartmouth College.
Therefore, our ability to finance all of our operations remain
unaltered. With our current cash position, we continue to have the
means to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure
requirements through H1 2019.”
Through its activities and expertise, Celyad is
gaining international recognition for the discovery and development
of CAR-T cell therapies and has established partnerships with
industrial and academic world-class players such as Novartis
(Switzerland), ONO Pharmaceutical (Japan), Moffitt Cancer Center
(United States) and Institut Curie (France).
About
Celyad
Celyad is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical
company focused on the development of specialized CAR-T cell based
therapies. The company utilizes its expertise in cell engineering
to target cancer. Celyad’s Natural Killer Receptor based T-Cell
(NKR-T) platform has the potential to treat a broad range of solid
and hematologic tumors. Its lead oncology candidate, CYAD-01 (CAR-T
NKG2D), has been evaluated in a single dose escalation Phase I
clinical trial to assess the safety and feasibility in patients
suffering from AML or MM. This Phase I study was successfully
completed in September 2016. Celyad was founded in 2007 and is
based in Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium, and Boston, Massachusetts.
Celyad’s ordinary shares are listed on the Euronext Brussels and
Euronext Paris exchanges, and its American Depository Shares are
listed on NASDAQ Global Market, all under the ticker symbol
CYAD.
For more information about Celyad, please visit:
www.celyad.com
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Forward looking
statements
In addition to historical facts or statements of
current condition, this press release contains forward looking
statements, including statements about the potential safety,
feasibility and long-term value of CAR-T NKR-2 cell therapy and
statements concerning management’s expectations that these assets
will generate revenue in the future, which reflect our current
expectations and projections about future events, and involve
certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions that
could cause actual results or events to differ materially from
those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These
forward looking statements are further qualified by important
factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from
those in the forward-looking statements, including risks associated
with conducting clinical trials; the risk that safety, bioactivity,
feasibility and/or efficacy demonstrated in earlier clinical or
pre-clinical studies may not be replicated in subsequent studies;
risk associated with the timely submission and approval of
anticipated regulatory filings; the successful initiation and
completion of clinical trials, including Phase I clinical trial for
CAR-T NKR-2; risks associated with the satisfaction of regulatory
and other requirements; risks associated with the actions of
regulatory bodies and other governmental authorities; risks
associated with obtaining, maintaining and protecting intellectual
property, our ability to enforce our patents against infringers and
defend our patent portfolio against challenges from third parties;
risks associated with competition from others developing products
for similar uses; risks associated with our ability to manage
operating expenses; and risks associated with our ability to obtain
additional funding to support our business activities and establish
and maintain strategic business alliances and business initiatives.
A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties and
other risks can be found in the Company’s Securities and Exchange
Commission filings and reports, including in the Company’s Annual
Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC on April 4, 2017and future
filings and reports by the Company. Given these uncertainties, the
reader is advised not to place any undue reliance on such
forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak
only as of the date of publication of this document. The Company
expressly disclaims any obligation to update any such
forward-looking statements in this document to reflect any change
in its expectations with regard thereto or any change in events,
conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based,
unless required by law or regulation.
For more information, please contact:
For Europe: Consilium Strategic Communications
Chris Gardner and Chris Welsh - T: +44 (0)20 3709 5700 – celyad@consilium-comms.com
For France: NewCap
Pierre Laurent and Nicolas Mérigeau - T: + 33(0)1 44 71 94 94 - celyad@newcap.eu
For Belgium: Comfi
Gunther De Backer and Sabine Leclercq - T.: +32 (0)2 290 90 90 – celyad@comfi.be
For the U.S.: Stern Investor Relations
Will O’Connor and Michael Schaffzin – T.: +1 212.362.1200 – celyad@sternir.com
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