BRIEF—Astellas in new collaboration to discover universal cell therapies

Japan’s Astellas Pharma and Washington, USA-based Universal Cells have agreed terms for a co-development and commercialization project based on the latter’s Universal Donor Cell technology.

The companies will seek to create novel cell therapy products that can be administered to any recipient without the need for Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) matching.

Astellas will lead and fully fund the development program and will obtain worldwide rights for commercialization.

Universal Cells will receive up to $9 million in a combination of an upfront payment and research milestones, as well as research funding and further milestone payments of up to $115 million, as well as royalties.