Regulatory News :
Cellectis (Paris:ALCLS) (Alternext: ALCLS.PA), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing immunotherapies based on gene edited engineered CART cells (UCART), hosted a meeting for individual shareholders at its head office on October 23, 2014. Approximately 50 people attended this meeting during which André Choulika, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cellectis, Mathieu Simon, Executive Vice-President in charge of Operations, Luc Mathis, Chief Executive Officer of Cellectis plant sciences, and Thierry Moulin, Chief Financial Officer, gave presentations on the Company and, in particular, its therapeutic programs under development, the Cellectis plant sciences business, and its first-half 2014 financial results to June 30, 2014.
Summary of the event
- Cellectis overview
André Choulika discussed Cellectis’ expertise in the field of genome engineering, its portfolio of patents, and two large-scale collaboration agreements with Pfizer and Servier. Today, the Cellectis pipeline includes 33 oncology targets (12 for Cellectis, 6 for Servier, and 15 for Pfizer), of which one key product candidate, UCART19, is in partnership with Servier. Phase I trial of UCART19 is expected to start in the 3rd quarter of 2015. André Choulika also explained the multichain CAR that Cellectis has been developing. This is a new generation of CAR, which is expected to increase engineering possibilities and which represents potential progress in targeting solid tumors.
- Cellectis therapeutic programs
Mathieu Simon presented the first two product candidates developed from T-cells by Cellectis: UCART19 (in partnership with Servier) and UCART123, both products stemming from the Company’s proprietary platform of adoptive immunotherapy against cancer. The Company believes this platform can be implemented on a large scale for different therapeutic indications in oncology. Dr. Simon described Cellectis’ manufacturing process and explained the strategy employed with regard to regulatory constraints applicable to CART cells in adoptive immunotherapy. Dr. Simon also explained Cellectis’ scientific and technological strategy.
- Cellectis plant sciences
Luc Mathis presented Cellectis plant sciences, whose core business is to develop innovative agricultural products, concentrated on large-scale markets such as potato, soybean, wheat or even canola, based on its proprietary platform which aims to increase agronomic value and agricultural quality for the agro-food business.
- Half-year 2014 financial results
Thierry Moulin discussed recent changes in the Company, which has strategically refocused its activities on oncology and plant science. This refocusing has resulted in a simplified structure and in enhanced control over costs and expenses. The Company had 103 million euros of cash and cash equivalents as of September 30, 2014. Mr. Moulin also gave details of the development of the Company’s shareholding, explaining that the interests of foreign shareholders (principally in the United States and the United Kingdom) increased from 15.3% in May 2013 to 42.3% in August 2014.
- Questions and answers
This meeting was also an opportunity to discuss recent strategic changes in the Company. For example, Dr. Choulika explained that the microalgae program had been abandoned because the development times proved to be much too long. In addition, André Choulika explained that the operational implementation of Scéil’s offer had been delayed owing to the withdrawal of the partner laboratory in Singapore. The offer had been relaunched in September 2014.
André Choulika and the entire management team of Cellectis thanked the shareholders present at this meeting for their interest, for their loyalty and for the quality of discussion during the presentations.
About Cellectis
Cellectis is a biopharmaceutical company
focused on developing immunotherapies based on gene edited engineered
CART cells (UCART). The company’s mission is to develop a new generation
of cancer therapies based on engineered T-cells. Cellectis capitalizes
on its 14 years of expertise in genome engineering - based on its
flagship TALEN™ products and meganucleases and pioneering
electroporation PulseAgile technology - to create a new generation of
immunotherapies for treating leukemias and solid tumors. Cellectis
adoptive cancer immunotherapy for chronic and acute leukemias is based
on allogeneic T-cell chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technology. CAR
technologies are designed to target surface antigens expressed on cells.
Using its life-science-focused, pioneering genome-engineering
technologies, Cellectis’ goal is to create innovative products in
multiple fields and with various target markets.
Disclaimer
This press release and the information contained
herein do not constitute an offer to sell or subscribe, or a
solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for shares in Cellectis in
any country. This press release contains forward-looking statements that
relate to the Company’s objectives based on the current expectations and
assumptions of the Company’s management only and involve unforeseeable
risk and uncertainties that could cause the Company to fail to achieve
the objectives expressed by the forward-looking statements.