The cell therapies Lakefront Biotherapeutics decided to wind down have found a buyer, and it is the man who championed them. Armed Cell Therapeutics, a new Belgian startup chaired by former Galapagos chief executive Paul Stoffels, is acquiring the programs for 8 million euros upfront and up to 230 million dollars in additional payments.
The portfolio holds two armed CAR-T therapies nearing human testing, in non-Hodgkin lymphoma and small cell lung cancer, plus three earlier preclinical projects. Armed CAR-T designs add payloads and multiple binders to engineered cells to resist the exhaustion and suppression that limit cell therapy in solid tumours. Willemijn Kremer, formerly Galapagos’ vice president for cell therapy corporate development, becomes Armed Cell’s chief executive, taking over from Stoffels as interim head.
The transaction closes a long arc. As Galapagos, Lakefront was built on partnerships with Gilead and AbbVie, won European approval for the rheumatoid arthritis drug filgotinib, saw it rejected in the United States, and then, under Stoffels, pivoted into cell therapy before setbacks brought layoffs and a decision to wind the work down. The company has since rebranded and refocused on autoimmune disease, and its chief business officer said the sale gives the assets a path to patients that Lakefront itself would not fund.