Mysterious BioNTech strikes $60m-plus cancer T cell deal with Lilly

May 13 2015

• By John Hodgson

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Mainz-based BioNTech, which once called itself "the biggest European biotech that you have never heard of", has announced a research collaboration in cancer immunotherapies with Eli Lilly centered around the German company's assets and platform in T cell receptors (TCR) and chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR T cells). BioNTech will receive a $30m signing on fee and Lilly will make a $30m equity investment in BioNTech's subsidiary, Cell & Gene Therapies.

Mainz-based BioNTech, which once called itself "the biggest European biotech that you have never heard of", has announced a research collaboration in cancer immunotherapies with Eli Lilly centered around the German company's assets and platform in T cell receptors (TCR) and chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR T cells). BioNTech will receive a $30m signing on fee and Lilly will make a $30m equity investment in BioNTech's subsidiary, Cell & Gene Therapies.

Dr Sierk Poetting, BioNTech's CFO, told Scrip that Lilly had "bought into its TCR platform" and that this would include...

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