Iovance’s Amtagvi won FDA accelerated approval in February, and Adaptimmune’s afami-cel may not be far behind, but cell therapies for solid tumors come with some extra challenges.

Astellas is building off an existing relationship with the biotech formed last August, joining the growing number of large pharmas looking at tackling solid tumors with cell therapy.

Collaboration Edition: Including deals involving Evotec/Variant, Sanofi/IGM/Nurix, ABVC/OncoX and Harmony/Bioprojet, along with tech transfer agreements and deals in brief.

Melanoma treatment Amtagvi is US FDA’s biologics center’s first novel approval of 2024.