Autolus Therapeutics received the 2026 Prix Galien UK Award for Best Biotechnology Product earlier this year in a recognition reflecting an achievement 10 years in the making.
The award, widely considered the highest accolade in the biopharmaceutical and medical technology industries, marked the latest chapter in a programme of research that began at UCL and UCLH with an effort to address some of the limitations of early CAR-T cell therapies.
The award was given for obecabtagene autoleucel, or obe-cel, a CAR-T cell therapy developed for adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL), an aggressive blood cancer for which treatment options can become limited when standard therapies fail.
UCLH director of research Professor Karl Peggs said: “The award highlights a long-standing collaboration between researchers, clinicians and industry. Autolus was spun out of UCL to translate pioneering scientific research into new treatment options for patients in need and licensed our early work with this therapy for further development and regulatory approval.”
The origins of obe-cel can be traced back to a challenge facing the first generation of CAR-T therapies. While these treatments demonstrated that engineered immune cells could be effective against blood cancers, they were also associated with significant immune-related side effects and, in some patients, limited persistence in the body.
Researchers at UCL wondered whether a different design could retain the anti-cancer activity of CAR-T cells while reducing some of these drawbacks. Led by Dr Martin Pule, the team developed a modified CD19 CAR-T construct designed to engage more briefly with its target. The hypothesis was that this might reduce inflammation while allowing the engineered cells to remain active for longer.
That concept eventually became obe-cel.
The therapy was developed through a close partnership between scientists at the UCL Cancer Institute, clinicians at UCLH and GOSH, and experts at the Royal Free Hospital's Centre for Cell, Gene and Tissue Therapeutics. Early clinical studies conducted at UCL and UCLH generated encouraging results, laying the foundations for the next stage of development.
To take the therapy from academic discovery to commercial reality, Dr Pule founded Autolus Therapeutics, a UCL spin-out company dedicated to advancing next-generation programmed T-cell therapies. Over the following years, the company attracted more than $1 billion in investment, much of it directed towards building research, development and manufacturing capabilities in the UK.
Today, the therapy is manufactured at Autolus' commercial facility in Stevenage and supplied to patients in the UK and US. Yet the story remains firmly rooted in the ecosystem that created it: a collaboration between academic researchers, clinicians, hospitals and industry partners working towards a common goal.
This collaboration has been bolstered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Biomedical Research Centre: UCLH, which has given sustained support for the UCL CAR-T cell programme.
UCLH medical director for surgery and cancer Geoff Bellingan said: “The Prix Galien judges recognised the end result: a biotechnology innovation capable of changing patients' lives.
“But the award also honours the years of work that preceded it – the scientific hypothesis conceived in a London laboratory, the clinical trials that tested it at UCLH and elsewhere, and the determination to turn promising research into a treatment reaching patients who desperately need it,” Professor Bellingan said.
And UCLH chief executive David Probert said UCLH was justly proud of the part it had played in this. Professor Probert said: “The 2026 Prix Galien is more than an accolade. It is recognition that a vision born at UCL and UCLH has matured into a globally important therapy, demonstrating how British science can move from bench to bedside and ultimately transform outcomes for patients facing life-threatening disease.”
Photo credit: Joe Miles
