=Sorrento Therapeutics (SRNE) : collaboration with Celularity in therapy development for coronavirus infection

Sorrento Therapeutics announces collaboration with Celularity to initiate emergency allogeneic NK cell therapy development for coronavirus infection

Sorrento Therapeutics has initiated a clinical and manufacturing collaboration with Celularity, a clinical-stage cell therapeutics company delivering transformative allogeneic cellular therapies derived from the postpartum human placenta. Sorrento owns 25% of Celularity, and the companies have a longstanding relationship. The objective of the collaboration is to expand the therapeutic use of Celularity's CYNK-001, an allogeneic, off-the-shelf, placental-derived Natural Killer (NK) cell therapy, to the treatment and prevention of coronavirus infections.

Under the contemplated collaboration, Sorrento and Celularity would assess CYNK-001 as a potential novel therapy for the treatment and prevention of coronaviruses, focusing in particular on the newly emerged 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV). In addition, Sorrento would utilize current existing capacity in its cGMP cell therapy manufacturing facilities in San Diego, California to supplement Celularity's new cGMP facility in Florham Park, New Jersey. The combined capacity would support the rapid scale-up and sustained production of the novel cell therapy.

Sorrento is already in contact with leading scientists and local Chinese experts to discuss the clinical validation and logistics requirements to fast-track CYNK-001 cell therapy available in China for this particularly urgent indication.