Laurus Labs To Acquire Additional 7.24pc Stake In lmmunoACT For Rs 80 crore

Hyderabad: Hyderabad-based Laurus Labs on Wednesday announced that it has signed definitive agreements to acquire additional stake of 7.24% in Immunoadoptive Cell Therapy Private Limited (lmmunoACT), an advanced cell and gene therapy company for a cash consideration of Rs 80 crore.

Post the completion of the deal, Laurus Labs’ stake in ImmunoACT will increase to 33.86% (on a fully diluted basis). This fresh infusion of capital will enable ImmunoACT to fast track the additional supply of the lead candidate HCAR-19 along with the further expansion of the multi-location GMP facilities for manufacturing Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cells (CAR-T cells) treatment to support the growing need for scalable manufacturing.

Additionally, some promoters and senior management of Laurus Labs would also acquire in ImmunoACT a 0.54% stake (before this investment) for approximately Rs 4 crore at the same price and terms through secondary purchases.

Laurus Labs’ earlier investment in ImmunoACT in November 2021 has supported ImmunoACT in successfully creating GMP manufacturing facility along with research and development facility at Navi Mumbai and currently conducting Phase II study at various hospitals including Tata Memorial Hospital. Phase I data was presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) during Nov-2022 that showed a favorable balance of efficacy and toxicity with low grade cytokine release syndrome.

"This Investment strengthens Laurus Labs’ commitment to access novel cell and gene therapy technology and enhance its affordability for patients. This investment will further help ImmunoACT to gear up for the manufacture of more treatments,” said Dr Satyanarayana Chava, founder and chief executive officer, Laurus Labs.

“The Current investment will help us to gear up to service more patients across India. We are expecting further collaboration to bring CAR T technologies to the needy Indian Patients at affordable price,” said Dr Rahul Purwar, founder and chairman of ImmunoACT.