Sorrento sets up new subsidiary, enters deal with City of Hope

Clinical-stage US biotech firm Sorrento Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SRNE) has formed a new company, named LA Cell, to focus on the development of groundbreaking cell-penetrating antibody therapies.

LA Cell has exclusively licensed technology developed at City of Hope that enables modified monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to penetrate into cells and target "undruggable" disease-causing molecules.

To date, existing antibody-based therapies have benefited millions of people worldwide, but have nonetheless been limited by their inability to reach proteins inside cells, where most disease-causing proteins are located. The City of Hope technology, which was developed in the laboratory of Hua Yu, Billy Wilder Endowed Professor and co-leader of the Cancer Immunotherapeutics Program, and Andreas Herrmann, Associate Research Professor, overcomes this limitation, potentially enabling a wave of new therapeutics for treatment of cancer and other life-threatening diseases.