Lineage Acquires Huntington’s Cell Therapy Program and Plans Manufacturing Transfer

Lineage Cell Therapeutics said on November 12 that it completed the acquisition of NeuroAirmid Therapeutics, adding an investigational cell therapy for Huntington’s disease to its pipeline. The company, whose cell banking and product manufacturing operations are conducted by a subsidiary in Jerusalem, plans to transfer the acquired program’s production process to its AlloSCOPE manufacturing platform. The treatment, hNSC-01, which Lineage calls HUNT1, uses stem-cell-derived neural cells. Six patients have received it in the ongoing REGEN4HD Phase 1b/2a study at the University of California, Irvine. The trial plans to enroll up to 21 participants and primarily assesses safety and tolerability, alongside exploratory functional and biomarker measures. HUNT1 becomes Lineage’s third clinical-stage asset. Lineage chief executive Brian M. Culley said, “HUNT1 represents an entirely new approach to treating HD.” The acquisition includes certain worldwide rights to the program and rights to use data from the ongoing study. Lineage also takes responsibility for subsequent clinical development and future manufacturing, process development and scale-up. NeuroAirmid’s investors received approximately $4.7 million at closing, divided roughly equally between cash and Lineage shares. They may receive up to $5 million on the first anniversary and up to $48 million in additional development, clinical and regulatory milestone payments. Lineage estimates that the clinical costs it is assuming through February 2030 total $3.1 million.