Adaptimmune admits defeat

Adaptimmune provided more proof on Monday that solo cell therapy launches are hard, agreeing to offload its approved and clinical-stage T-cell receptor therapies. US WorldMeds is paying just $55m up front and $30m in milestones for Tecelra, which got the FDA nod last year; letetresgene autoleucel, due to be filed soon; and the Galapagos-partnered uzatresgene autoleucel. Tecelra sold $4m in the first quarter of 2025, with Adaptimmune forecasting $35-45m in full-year revenues. Making a profit always looked like a big ask, and larger players were clearly unconvinced, with Adaptimmune losing GSK as a partner in 2022, followed by Roche in 2024. US WorldMeds, a private speciality pharma group that apparently plans to continue marketing and developing all three assets, must still see promise here, but Adaptimmune’s capitulation looks like bad news for the likes of Iovance, which is struggling to sell its TIL-based treatment Amtagvi, and Atara, which is still trying to get its T-cell therapy Ebvallo to market. Adaptimmune, meanwhile, is pivoting to preclinical assets hitting PRAME (where Immatics’ IMA203 is the project to beat) and CD70 (where plenty of Car-Ts are in development, but ADP-520 is the only TCR-based asset, according to OncologyPipeline). Adaptimmune’s stock plunged 71% on Monday.

Adaptimmune’s engineered TCRs: what’s going, what’s staying

Source: OncologyPipeline & company release.