Beam Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAM) has announced its recent pipeline, business updates, and Q2 2021 financial results.
Beam started IND-enabling studies on BEAM-201
The company initiated enabling BEAM-201 studies for refractory/relapsed T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. BEAM-201 is a strong and specific allogeneic CAR-T targeting CD7+ malignancies that employ multiplex editing to make four simultaneous knockout edits with more than 60% efficiency. Additionally, the company plans to file IND for BEAM 101 and initiate IND-enabling studies for BEAM 102 in the second half of 2021. The company is on course to nominate its first Development Candidate for in vivo base editing using LNP delivery by year-end.
CEO John Evans said, “We have made meaningful progress in advancing our base editing programs in the first half of the year, and importantly, remain on track to submit our first investigational new drug (IND) for BEAM-101 in the second half of this year. With the initiation of IND-enabling studies for BEAM-201, we are now bringing the versatility and precision of base editing to a second therapeutic area, targeting the high unmet need in T-cell cancers with the first quad-edited cell therapy.”
Beam signed a collaboration with Apellis
Evans added, “We’ve also continued to expand our innovative collaborator network, most recently through our partnership with Apellis to apply base editing to the more biologically complex disease area of the complement pathway. With a strong balance sheet, we are well positioned to advance our robust pipeline of novel base editing programs through IND filings and into the clinic as we strive to provide potentially life-long cures for patients suffering from serious diseases.”
The company announced a research collaboration with Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc., granting Apellis exclusive rights to license the sic base editing programs Beam will study. Apellis, in return, will pay an upfront and milestones payment of $75 million to Beam. Beam ended the quarter with $615.3 million in cash and cash equivalents.
