Blackstone Chips in $250 Million to Aid Autolus’ CAR-T Therapy

Autolus Therapeutics has had a few rough years, with its stock down more than 70% in the last three. In 2021 alone, the price decreased by more than 40%. Additionally, its net grant income for Q3 was only $200,000, while its operating expenses for the same time reached $42.7 million.  

However, their latest partnership may be the turning point. On November 8th, the company announced entering into a strategic collaboration and financing agreement with Blackstone, one of the leading investment firms in the world. The news propelled Autolus’ shares more than 25% higher. The money is earmarked to advance one of their CAR T cells programs targeting B-cell malignancies and it will allow them to continue with their ongoing clinical trials.

Autolus’ CD19 CAR-T Therapy

The deal is centered around Autolus’ lead candidate, obecabtagene autoleucel (obe-cel), a CD19 CAR-T that is expected to overcome the safety and efficacy limitations faced by existing CAR-T therapies. The company is currently positioning obe-cel as a treatment for adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Autolus has developed a broad array of T cell programming technologies, a proprietary viral vector, and a semi-automated cell manufacturing process. Their engineered cells have three improvements over conventional CAR T cell therapy:

1. Enhanced selectivity: Using pattern recognition technologies to improve selectivity and avoid side effects.
2. Modulate activity: They have engineered technologies to modulate the activity or eliminate the T cells to avoid severe adverse effects.
3. Enhanced T-cell activity: They developed a technique to deliver a cytokine signal that is released based on the tumor microenvironment. The signal may be enhanced by antigens secreted by the tumor.

Autolus has a robust pipeline, but is still in early clinical trials, and has no commercial products. obe-cel is currently in Phase 1B/2 clinical trials for ALL, and Phase 1 for primary central nervous system lymphoma, and B-Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Autolus also has plans to begin three clinical trials early next year for their GD2, PSMA, and BCMA T cell therapies.

Terms of the Deal

Their collaboration with Blackstone will provide them with up to $150 million in equity and product financing to support the advancement of obe-cel in B-cell malignancies. The deal consists of $50 million payable upon closing of the transaction, and $100 million in developmental and regulatory milestone payments. Additionally, Blackstone will purchase $100 million of Autolus’ American Depositary Shares (ADS) in a private placement.

In return, Blackstone receives the right to nominate a member to the board of directors, they will receive single-digit royalty plus milestone payments based on net cells, and the warrant to purchase up to $24 million worth of ADS at a discounted price. 

“We welcome Blackstone Life Sciences to join our drive to change the outlook for leukemia and lymphoma patients, notably those with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Blackstone’s investment and expertise will support the development and preparation for commercialization of obe-cel and put the program and the Company on a strong financial footing as we are approaching the read-out from the potentially pivotal FELIX clinical trial during the course of 2022,” said Dr. Christian Itin, CEO of Autolus.

Author

Daniel Ojeda