Adaptimmune slashes 25% of headcount despite improved data for T-cell candidate

Adaptimmune slashes 25% of headcount despite improved data for T-cell candidate

Published: Nov 09, 2022

By Tristan Manalac

BioSpace

Adaptimmune has had a busy start to its week, touting improved efficacy numbers for its engineered T-cell candidate, ADP-A2M4CD8, while also dealing with the economic repercussions of its terminated partnership with GSK.

In a conference call to discuss its Q3 financial results, Adrian Rawcliffe, the company’s chief executive officer, said Adaptimmune will regain “full control” over its PRAME program moving forward. Still, tough economic realities have forced the company’s leadership to “pause, stop, deprioritize and limit resources” for non-core programs and instead channel its time and resources into three key areas: MAGE-A4, PRAME and the allogeneic platform.

As a result, Adaptimmune is also shaving off 25% and 30% of its workforce in a company reorganization effort, which Rawcliffe said will extend its runway into early 2025. The layoffs are expected to take effect in Q1 next year.

These developments come after the pharma giant GSK returned the rights to the PRAME program to Adaptimmune in late October. The partnership was first announced in June 2014, when GSK bought into a strategic collaboration and licensing agreement for up to five programs. GSK then exercised this option in September 2017, earning exclusive rights to Adaptimmune’s NY-ESO SPEAR T-cell therapy program as well as the PRAME target.

Following last month’s transfer of assets, Adaptimmune anticipates the termination of the overall collaboration. GSK will no longer have any rights to other additional targets.

‘Next-Generation’ T-Cell Therapy SURPASSES Previous Performance

In a separate announcement published Tuesday, Adaptimmune revealed new data from its Phase I SURPASS program assessing ADP-A2M4CD8 in various cancers.

Since the company revealed initial data at the European Society of Medical Oncology conference in September, Adaptimmune has recorded an increase in objective response rate to 52% in patients with late-stage ovarian, urothelial and head and neck cancers who had been heavily pretreated. The prior ORR was 44%.

In ovarian cancer, ORR increased from 36% to 43%, while results improved from 43% to 57% in urothelial cancer. The ORR in the overall patient sample increased from 33% at EMSO to 37% in the latest report. 

ADP-A2M4CD8 treatment also induced one new case of complete response in a patient with urothelial cancer. Adaptimmune’s T-cell candidate demonstrates a durable treatment response and is now at a median of approximately 20 weeks.

In SURPASS, the company will focus on indications where ADP-A2M4CD8 has yielded “outstanding response data,” Rawcliffe said in the conference call. Based on these positive findings, Adaptimmune is readying a Phase II trial, still within the SURPASS family, in ovarian cancer.

Studies for urothelial and head and neck cancers are also in the works, aiming to assess ADP-A2M4CD8 in earlier lines of treatment.

Source: BioSpace