Adaptimmune Therapeutics PLC and Bellicum Pharmaceuticals Inc. signed a deal to collaborate on the evaluation, development and commercialization of next-generation T-cell therapies.

The companies said they agreed to utilize Adaptimmune's affinity-optimized SPEAR T-cells to evaluate Bellicum's GoTCR technology for the potential to create enhanced T-cell receptor product candidates. Based on the results of the pre-clinical proof-of-concept phase, the companies will move to a two-target co-development and co-commercialization phase.