Be The Match BioTherapies Announces Collaboration Agreement with Magenta Therapeutics

Strategic partnership aims to expand the use of stem cell transplant to immune and blood-based diseases

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – May 2, 2017

Be The Match BioTherapies^SM, an organization offering solutions for delivering autologous and allogeneic cellular therapies, today announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Magenta Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing therapies to improve and expand the use of curative stem cell transplantation. The collaboration is intended to support efforts to improve transplant outcomes and expand the application of stem cell transplantation into disease indications that include autoimmunity, serious inherited immune and metabolic disorders, blood defects and blood cancers. Be The Match BioTherapies also announced today that it is participating in Magenta’s Series B financing round, its first equity investment as an organization.

Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, Be The Match BioTherapies and Magenta will explore opportunities to work together across Magenta’s discovery, clinical development and product delivery efforts. The collaboration leverages a wide range of Be The Match BioTherapies’ research assets and services, including the National Marrow Donor Program^® (NMDP)/Be The Match^® marrow registry, the largest in the world with nearly 16 million volunteer marrow donors. Magenta may also collaborate with Be The Match BioTherapies in the design of clinical trials and of its cell therapy delivery platform and services.

“Partnering with Magenta in its efforts to revolutionize the current state of stem cell transplantation aligns with our core mission to help organizations deliver cellular therapies that save more lives and improve the quality of life for patients,” said Amy Ronneberg, president of Be The Match BioTherapies. “Our collaboration with Magenta exemplifies how cell and gene therapy companies can benefit from our robust network of products and services regardless of where they are in the development life cycle. We look forward to lending our expertise in cellular therapy and leveraging our deep-rooted relationships, partnerships and global infrastructure to support the development of powerful treatment options with great potential to improve patient outcomes in a range of disease areas.”

Jason Gardner, D. Phil., chief executive officer, president and cofounder of Magenta, added: “We believe that Be The Match BioTherapies’ extensive experience and network in stem cell transplant medicine, coupled with Magenta’s work in patient conditioning and stem cell harvesting and growth, could accelerate our development path and ability to positively impact patients’ lives.”

Be The Match BioTherapies launched in 2016 as a subsidiary of NMDP/Be The Match, the national organization with a 30-year history of connecting patients with their donor match for a life-saving bone marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant. As experts in providing services and expertise to organizations pursuing life-saving treatments in the cellular therapy space, Be The Match BioTherapies aims to help critically ill patients who can benefit from these treatments.

Cellular therapies, including marrow and cord blood transplant, are specialized patient treatments that are made from cells collected from the patient or an adult donor, often used to assist the patient’s immune system. Blood and marrow transplantation is a form of cellular therapy that has been used for decades to treat a variety of diseases, primarily blood cancers such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma and leukemia. Approximately 50,000 hematopoietic stem cell transplants are performed each year globally, but life-threatening disease relapse and graft-versus-host disease following transplantation are common (source: WHO). New types of cellular therapies, such as CAR-T therapies, are showing potential to treat these life-threatening conditions or address post-transplant issues.

Be The Match BioTherapies partners with organizations pursuing new life-saving treatments in cellular therapy. Built on the foundation established over the last 30 years by the NMDP/Be The Match, the organization has unparalleled experience in personalized patient management with a single point of contact, cell sourcing and collection, cell therapy delivery platform, immunogenetics and bioinformatics, research and regulatory compliance. By leveraging proven capabilities and established relationships, Be The Match BioTherapies can bring customizable solutions to organizations in every stage of cellular therapy development—from discovery through commercialization. Discover how Be The Match BioTherapies can assist your company at BeTheMatchBioTherapies.com.

Magenta Therapeutics is a biotechnology company harnessing the power of stem cell science to revolutionize stem cell transplantation for patients with immune- and blood-based diseases. By creating a platform focused on critical areas of transplant medicine, Magenta Therapeutics is pioneering an integrated, but modular approach to stem cell therapies that create patient benefit. Founded by internationally recognized leaders in stem cell transplant medicine, Magenta Therapeutics was launched in 2016 by Third Rock Ventures and Atlas Venture and is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. For more information, please visit www.magentatx.com.

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Dan Quinn, Ten Bridge Communications
781-475-7974
dan@tenbridgecommunications.com