BIOTECHNOLOGY company TC BioPharm and US counterpart bluebird bio, have embarked on a collaboration and license agreement worth an initial $16 million to the Edinburgh firm.
The companies will work together to advance TC BioPharm (TCB)’s pioneering immunology cancer treatment technology.
The firm, co-founded by chief executive Dr Michael Leek, said staff numbers would “increase significantly in the coming months”. The group currently employs 60 staff.
Its technology treats patients with skin, lung and kidney cancer, using their own cells to attack the disease by centring on the cultivation of a type of white blood cell which naturally battles cancer, but struggles when the disease reaches advanced stages.
Bluebird bio said the agreement complemented its growing immuno-oncology development programme.
Under the terms of the agreement, bluebird bio and TCB will collaborate to discover and develop gamma delta T cells for cancer targets and indications. TCB is responsible for development of initial targets, before giving bluebird the exclusive option to assume sole responsibility for further clinical development and commercialisation on a global basis.
In addition to the upfront payment and subsequent potential milestone payments, TCB is also eligible for tiered royalties on product sales.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here