Description of Business

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2021

Description Of Business [Abstract]

Description of Business

1. Description of Business

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. (“Atara”, “we”, “our” or “the Company”) was incorporated in August 2012 in Delaware. Atara is a pioneer in T-cell immunotherapy, leveraging its novel allogeneic EBV T-cell platform to develop transformative therapies for patients with serious diseases, including solid tumors, hematologic cancers and autoimmune disease.

We have several T-cell immunotherapies in clinical development and are progressing multiple next-generation allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (“CAR T”) programs. Our most advanced T-cell immunotherapy program, tab-cel^® (tabelecleucel), is currently in Phase 3 development, and in October 2021, we entered into a commercialization agreement (“Pierre Fabre Commercialization Agreement”) with Pierre Fabre Medicament (“Pierre Fabre”), pursuant to which we granted to Pierre Fabre an exclusive, field-limited license to commercialize and distribute tab-cel^® in Europe and select emerging markets in the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, following regulatory approval. Atara will retain full rights to tab-cel^® in other major markets, including North America, Asia Pacific and Latin America. See Note 7 for further information. In December 2020, we entered into a research, development and license agreement (“Bayer License Agreement”) with Bayer AG (“Bayer”) pursuant to which we granted to Bayer an exclusive, field-limited license under the applicable patents and know-how owned or controlled by us and our affiliates covering or related to ATA2271 and ATA3271. In March 2021, as contemplated under the Bayer License Agreement and to further advance our collaboration, we entered into (i) a Manufacturing and Supply Agreement; (ii) a Pharmacovigilance Agreement; (iii) a Quality Agreement; and (iv) a Technology Transfer Agreement (collectively, the Bayer License Agreement, the Manufacturing and Supply Agreement and the Technology Transfer Agreement are referred to as the “Bayer Agreements”). See Note 7 for further information.

We have licensed rights to T-cell product candidates from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (“MSK”), rights related to our next-generation CAR T programs from MSK and from H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center (“Moffitt”), and rights to know-how and technology from the Council of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (“QIMR Berghofer”). See Note 6 for further information.