UK biotech firm Autolus joins CAR-T rush with Nasdaq IPO filing

Arix Bioscience

08/05/2018 09:58

LONDON, May 8 (Reuters) - Autolus Therapeutics, a small
British company developing cell therapy treatments, is to join
the swelling ranks of listed biotech companies using the new
anti-cancer technology with a planned IPO on Nasdaq.
    The group said on Tuesday it had filed a registration
statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a
proposed initial public offering (IPO) under the ticker symbol
AUTL.
    The number of its American depositary shares to be sold in
the IPO and the pricing terms have not yet been determined.
    Autolus is developing chimeric antigen receptor T-cell
(CAR-T) treatments to fight blood cancers and, hopefully, also
solid tumours.
    The first two CAR-T treatments from Novartis  NOVN.S  and
Gilead Sciences  GILD.O  won U.S. approval last year for rare
blood cancer and a number of start-up companies, as well as
large drugmakers, are investing heavily in the space.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1S7120
    Autolus, which was spun out from University College London
in 2014 and uses cell technology pioneered by Dr. Martin Pule,
is aiming to develop next-generation CAR-T treatments that it
hopes will have an edge over the first wave of therapies.
    Its backers include Syncona  SYNCS.L , Woodford Investment
Management and Arix Bioscience  ARIX.L . 

 (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Jason Neely)
 ((ben.hirschler@thomsonreuters.com; +44 7542 5082; Reuters
Messaging: ben.hirschler.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))