Juno Therapeutics CEO Eyes New Commercial Immunotherapy Treatment Facility for 2015

Juno Therapeutics CEO Eyes New Commercial Immunotherapy Treatment Facility for 2015
January 15, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor

Seattle-based Juno Therapeutics hopes to have a designated facility specifically for commercial development up and running by the end of 2015, said its CEO Wednesday, though he did not specify where the building would be located or how large it might be.

Chief Executive Officer Hans Bishop told attendees at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference the new facility will be needed to help the young company grow and thrive, particularly in the area of small patient trials for blood cancers, where Juno has seen cure rates above 90 percent

"The patients you see ... have all failed several lines of previous therapy," he said. "We'll be looking for patient groups where we believe we can have superior efficacy."

The newly IPO’d Juno surprised the market Wednesday when it said it will have 10 therapeutic candidates for six different diseases in clinical trials by end of 2015, a massive push into the market that was unexpected by even its most bullish supporters.

Bishop said that it has data for endogenous T cells that can reach cancer cells in all tissue types, with efficacy in high rate of response in patients.

Juno joined a long list of gene therapy biotechs attempting to IPO this year; the company uses human T cells to help fight cancer. Its main therapies are based on T Cell Receptors (TCR) and Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR) and include chimericantigen receptor drug candidates JCAR 014, JCAR015, and JCAR017.

Interim ASH data hasn’t quite shown an improved clinical profile for its experimental therapies -017, -014 with defined cell composition (CD4/8), but Bishop was excited about the company’s next-generation “armored" chimeric antigen receptors to combat the tumor microenvironment, specifically IL-2 secreting area. Juno has bispecific CARs that can regulate the tumor’s on/off switches, said Bishop.

“The real prize here is obviously success in solid tumors,” he told the audience.

Juno has been riding high since its initial public offering Dec. 19. The stock’s opening price was $24 per share, which skyrocketed 60 the first day of trading. The company adjusted its set price several times prior to the IPO, first filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission between $15 and $18, then updating to between $21 and $23.

It has since settled down to a steady $52.63 as of morning trading Thursday.

Bishop raked in $100 million for his 3 percent. Other stakeholders include Robert Nelson, who made $450 million, and Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who pocketed a tidy $153.6 million.

In addition, two funds, CL Alaskan and JT Line Partners, have a combined 31 percent stake. Their portion of Juno is now worth more than $1 billion.

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