Juno: A Leader In The Next Major Therapeutic Industry

kongming

Jan. 5, 2016 3:52 PM ET| About: Juno Therapeutics (JUNO), Includes: BLUE, CLLS, KITE, NVS, ZIOP2 E/ M8 \) t+ Y
Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. (More...)
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Cancer immunotherapy has emerged as a new viable market for the biotech industry. Antibodies and now cellular therapies are actively being pursued for the treatment of cancer.1 V0 a  @, j* O6 A

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; Y& |0 N# ?  B( ~# w# vWhile CAR-T therapy is well established, carrying out this type of treatment is labor intensive and will introduce the risk of side effects./ Y2 f! q- n* Q. W
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Cancer immunotherapy has emerged as a new viable market for the biotech industry. Antibodies and now cellular therapies are actively being pursued for the treatment of cancer. Cancer immunotherapy drugs accounted for about 50% of the overall oncology drugs market, generating about $41.0 billion in 2014. One of these new therapies is chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) and T cell receptor (TCR) therapy. This therapy combines the specificity of an antibody or TCR with the cytotoxic effector functions of the immune system's T cells. Here we evaluate Juno Therapeutics (NASDAQ:JUNO), one of the leading companies in the CAR-T space.
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Scientific Risk
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The science behind CAR-T therapy is extremely well established. Juno alone, has 16 publications in high-impact journals presented on its website. This does not include the numerous publications by other companies in the CAR-T space, as well as academic research publications. These publications show extensive pre-clinical and clinical efficacy in a number of tumor models. One major advantage of the CAR-T approach over similar therapies is that it aims to activate T cells and specifically target the tumor. CAR-T cells have the potential to be converted into memory T cells, which can protect patients from tumors expressing the target antigen for the duration of their lives. The most recent publications also show efficacy for next generation CAR-T therapy, which included "armoured" T cells, as well as control systems to limit the toxicity of CAR-T therapy.
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! P( B6 m9 S$ r, a# PHowever, in clinical trials, CAR-T therapy has been limited to blood cancers, and has not shown efficacy in solid tumors. One of the competitive advantages that Juno has over its competitors is its cash on hand to invest into research and development as well as acquisition of smaller companies that may provide new technologies to make CAR-T and TCR therapy more safe and effective. Another major scientific consideration is the labor-intensive nature of manufacturing personalized CAR-T therapy. Currently, a patient's T cells are removed, expanded and then transduced with a lentivirus encoding the relevant CAR or TCR. Juno must find efficient methods for this process in order to keep the cost down.