The financial markets continue to be tough for companies looking to raise money, but several biotechs were able to find investors willing to back their research. Cell therapy research and cancer drugs figured prominently in the financings announced in the past week. Heres a look back at biotech financing activity from the past week.

Cell therapy developer Tessa Therapeutics unveiled a $126M Series A round of funding to finance ongoing clinical development of two different types of cancer treatments. TT11 is the Singapore-based companys autologous cell therapy, which is made from a patients own T cells. That cell therapy candidate targets the cancer protein CD30 and is being readied to begin a pivotal Phase 2 test later this year. TT11X is Tessas allogeneic cell therapy, which is made from the immune cells of healthy donors. That experimental therapy also targets CD30 and is currently in Phase 1 testing. Polaris Partners led Tessas new round of financing.

Charm Therapeutics launched with a $50 million to back its artificial intelligence-based approach to drug discovery. The London-based companys technology, called DragonFold AI, predicts three-dimensional structures of proteins to gain insights into difficult to address targets in cancer and other therapeutic areas. Charm calls this approach 3D deep learning. F-Prime Capital and OrbiMed co-led the Series A round of financing, which included participation from General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Braavos, and Axial.

Code Biotherapeutics is bypassing viral delivery of genetic medicines, and it raised $75 million to advance the development of its synthetic DNA approach. Hatfield, Pennsylvania-based Code Bio says its approach can overcome several of the limitations of therapies delivered via engineered viruses. The Series A round of financing, led by Northpond Ventures, will be applied toward the preclinical research that could support investigational new drug applications for lead programs in Duchenne muscular dystrophy and type 1 diabetes.

Hypertension-focused Mineralys Therapeutics closed a $118 million Series B round of financing led by RA Capital Management and Andera Partners. The Philadelphia-based biotech will use the capital to continue clinical development of MLS-101, a drug designed to block aldosterone synthase, reducing levels of that enzyme without affecting other hormones like cortisol. The company believes this selectivity can make MLS-101 a targeted treatment for blood pressure in hypertension patients who have elevated aldosterone production, an underlying cause of hypertension in about 25% of patients who have the condition. The molecule, licensed from Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, is currently in Phase 2 testing and is expected to post preliminary data later this year.

Synklino, a biotech company developing treatments for chronic viral infections, closed a 29.8 million (about $31.9 million) Series A funding round. The Copenhagen, Denmark-based company lead drug candidate, SYN002, is an experimental treatment for cytomegalovirus, which can lead to infection and complications in transplant patients. PKA pension fund led the Synklino financing; The Danish Growth Fund and Eir Ventures also participated.

Radiopharmaceuticals company Ariceum Therapeutics launched with the backing of a 25 million (about $26.3 million) Series A round of funding. The Berlin-based company will use the capital to advance development of its lead radiopharmaceutical candidate, satoreotide, as a treatment for neuroendocrine cancers and certain other aggressive and difficult-to-treat cancers. The radiopharmaceutical is designed to block somatostatin type 2, a receptor that is overexpressed in many cancers that include small cell lung cancer; high-grade neuroendocrine tumors; and neuroblastoma, a rare but aggressive cancer that occurs mainly in young children. The drug candidate was acquired from Ipsen last year.

Pinetree Therapeutics, a preclinical biotech developing treatments for cancer and viral diseases, closed a $23.5 million Series A1 round of funding. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based companys technology, called Tumor Associated Essential Receptor Targeting Antibody, or TAER-TAB, produces antibodies. Pinetrees lead drug candidate is a bispecific antibody designed to treat non-small cell lung cancer by degrading EGFR, a protein involved in the cell signaling that drives cancer growth.

Degron Therapeutics is going after undruggable disease targets and it now has $22 million in funding to support its research. The biotechs platform technology, called GlueXplorer, develops so-called molecular glues that can be used in a type of therapy called targeted protein degradation. The preclinical-stage company aims to develop drugs for cancer, inflammation, and metabolic disease, and rare disease among other therapeutic areas. Three programs have reached lead optimization; one of them addresses a target with applications in a range of cancers and immune diseases. Med-Fine Capital led the Series A round of funding for Degron, which splits its operations between San Diego and Shanghai.

Coya Therapeutics, a cell therapy developer has raised $10.3 million to continue development of several programs, including its most advanced one, a potential treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. That program, COYA 101, is an autologous cell therapy made from a type of immune cell called a regulatory T cell (Treg). Houston-based Coya plans to advance that therapeutic candidate into Phase 2b testing. The pipeline includes allogeneic cell therapies for frontal temporal dementia and autoimmune and metabolic disorders, which the company plans to advance into Phase 1 clinical testing.

AI-based firm Anagenex unveiled $30 million in financing to apply its technology toward the development novel small molecules capable of hitting so-called undruggable targets. The preclinical-stage biotechs most advanced drug candidates are being developed for cardiovascular diseases and cancers. Catalio Capital Management led Anagenexs Series A round of funding.

Photo: Devrimb, Getty Images

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Tessa Therapeutics takes in $126M for cell therapies, and more biotech financings - MedCity News

It is probably fair to characterise the mood over the Asco conference as negative, at least among biotech investors, who are struggling with plunging market valuations and saw a number of companies sell off after data presentations over the weekend.

But an Evaluate Vantage analysis comparing share prices at the end of Asco against when the abstracts went live throws up impressive gainers, notably the cell therapy players Arcellx and Adicet, and a strong showing from Merus and biotechs involved in Tigit blockade. Some might see in this signs that the market crash is bottoming out, though what it does not capture is moves during the meeting, like Astrazenecas perverse fall on presentation of Ascos most momentous dataset.

That was of course the groundbreaking data from the Destiny-Breast04 study of Enhertu, the ADC Astra licensed from Daiichi Sankyo. But it is key to remember that this study was toplined back in February, since when both companies enjoyed strong run-ups into Asco. As such the slight selloff merely shows that expectations had been priced in.

Specifically this analysis compares share prices at market close on Tuesday, formally Ascos last day, against May 26, when all regular abstracts went live after market close. But late-breakers only went live on the morning of their presentation, and many regular presentations contained new data that were not in the abstracts. This analysis therefore does not capture stock fluctuations that occurred during this period.

Kras again

A good example is Mirati, which during this Asco period appears as a virtually irrelevant 1% gainer. However, the stock had crashed in response to the May 26 abstract, when questions were raised about the durability of its Kras G12C inhibitor adagrasib in second-line lung cancer.

But Mirati recovered the losses when a late-breaker showed a 32% ORR in brain metastases, spurring hopes of differentiation versus Amgens rival product Lumakras. A separate update from the phase 2 Krystal-7 trial, with an adagrasib/Keytruda combo in first-line NSCLC, also impressed analysts particularly its 77% ORR in patients with 50% PD-L1 expression. Amgen now has a bar to hit when it presents its own combo data in late summer.

Arcellx sold off on Tuesday after presenting an important update on its BCMA-directed Car-T therapy CART-ddBCMA, but over the whole Asco period was an impressive 77% gainer. The stock is trading above its February IPO price at last.

Another cell therapy company, the gamma-delta Car-T player Adicet, also had a good Asco, despite leaving durability questions unanswered. And, concerns over a Parkinsonism side effect aside, an update to the Cartitude-1 trial cemented Carvykti's unassailable status in the first wave of BCMA-directed therapies, and lifted Legend Biotech.

A curious thing happened regarding Tigit blockade. Roches SCLC study Skyscraper-02 was revealed to be an unmitigated disaster, but an important detail regarding statistical analysis emboldened those betting that Skyscraper-01, a study in the more important setting of front-line NSCLC that failed at first interim analysis, could still yield a positive readout.

With Tigit expectations at rock bottom this lifted the stocks of Iteos and Arcus, two Tigit players without significant Asco updates, as well as that of Mereo, a distressed company that did present a poster on its anti-Tigit MAb etigilimab.

In a battle in NRG1 fusion cancers Merus came out on top, helped by a head start over its closest competitor, Elevation Oncology. Elevation came out swinging, with its chief executive, Shawn Leland, telling Evaluate Vantage that its MAb seribantumab could have broader activity than Meruss bispecific zenocutuzumab. Elevation will report data in more patients next year, but over the Asco period this micro-cap biotech slumped.

Although PMV Pharmaceuticals enjoyed an Asco abstract bump it came down to earth over questions that its p53 reactivator PC14586 might lack a therapeutic window, and the stock ended down over the Asco period.

Sanofi had data at the meeting but its move was probably down to a Libtayo development that did not concern Asco, while conversely Affimed was off after ultimately being unable to present a promised paper.

But, in terms of sentiment, it was perhaps Gilead that had the worst Asco. First came a late-breaker detailing Trodelvys Tropics-02 study to be fair this was not as bad as the biggest doom-mongers had feared and then Destiny-Breast04 threatened to relegate that drug to a tiny breast cancer niche.

The icing on the cake came with the anti-CD47 MAb magrolimab, which has recently had its clinical hold lifted, but which continued to disappoint. Azacitidine combos in both high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes and AML produced waning complete response rates versus earlier data cuts.

A complete listing of Vantages Asco coverage can be found on our conference page.

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Asco 2022 movers cell therapy wins, but its not the whole story - Vantage

Washington [US], June 12 (ANI): A new study has found that a patient can undergo T cell therapy designed to target cancerous tumours, the patients entire immune system must be destroyed with chemotherapy or radiation.

The study was published in the journal Nature.

The toxic side effects are well known, including nausea, extreme fatigue and hair loss. Now a research team, led by UCLAs Anusha Kalbasi, MD, in collaboration with scientists from Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania, has shown that a synthetic IL-9 receptor allows those cancer-fighting T cells to do their work without the need for chemo or radiation. T cells engineered with the synthetic IL-9 receptor, designed in the laboratory of Christopher Garcia, PhD, at Stanford, were potent against tumors in mice.

When T cells are signalling through the synthetic IL-9 receptor, they gain new functions that help them not only outcompete the existing immune system but also kill cancer cells more efficiently, Kalbasi said. I have a patient right now struggling through toxic chemotherapy just to wipe out his existing immune system so T cell therapy can have a fighting chance. But with this technology you might give T cell therapy without having to wipe out the immune system beforehand.

Kalbasi, a researcher at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and an assistant professor of radiation oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, began the work while under the mentorship of Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, a senior investigator on the study. The study was also led by Mikko Siurala, PhD, from the laboratory of Carl June, MD, at Penn, and Leon L. Su, PhD, of the Garcia Lab at Stanford.

This finding opens a door for us to be able to give T cells a lot like we give a blood transfusion, Ribas said.

Ribas and Garcia collaborated on a paper published in 2018 that focused on the concept that a synthetic version of interleukin-2 (IL-2), a critical T cell growth cytokine, could be used to stimulate T cells engineered with a matching synthetic receptor for the synthetic IL-2. With this system, T cells can be manipulated even after they have been given to a patient, by treating the patient with the synthetic cytokine (which has no effect on other cells in the body). Intrigued by that work, Kalbasi and colleagues were interested in testing modified versions of the synthetic receptor that transmit other cytokine signals from the common-gamma chain family: IL-4, -7, -9 and -21.

It was clear early on that, among the synthetic common-gamma chain signals, the IL-9 signal was worth investigating, Kalbasi said, adding that, unlike other common-gamma chain cytokines, IL-9 signalling is not typically active in naturally occurring T cells. The synthetic IL-9 signal made T cells take on a unique mix of both stem-cell and killer-like qualities that made them more robust in fighting tumours. In one of our cancer models, we cured over half the mice that were treated with the synthetic IL-9 receptor T cells.

Kalbasi said the therapy proved to be effective in multiple systems. They targeted two types of hard-to-treat cancer models in mice pancreatic cancer and melanoma and used T cells targeted to cancer cells through the natural T cell receptor or a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR).

The therapy also worked whether we gave the cytokine to the whole mouse or directly to the tumour. In all cases, T cells engineered with synthetic IL-9 receptor signalling were superior and helped us cure some tumours in mice when we couldnt do it otherwise. (ANI)

This report is auto-generated from ANI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.

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Radiation pre-T cell therapy can alleviate need for chemo, says study - ThePrint

CAR T Cell Therapies Driving New Era Of Combination Cancer Therapies Says Kuick Research

Global Combination Cancer Immunotherapy Market Opportunity & Clinical Trials Insight 2028 Report Highlights:

Download Report:

https://www.kuickresearch.com/report-combination-cancer-therapy-market

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has emerged out to revolutionary pillar in the management of cancer owing to its ability to produce durable clinical response. The recently developed CAR T cell therapy is a novel immunotherapeutic approach which involves genetic modification of patients autologous T cells to express CAR specific tumor antigen, following by ex vivo expansion and re-infusion back into patients. Till date, cocktail of CAR T cell therapies have been granted approval by regulatory bodies which have been indicated for the management of hematological malignancies such as lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma.

Although these have shown promising response in the management of hematological malignancies, however their role in solid tumors possesses several limitations. To mitigate these limitations, researchers have developed new combinational approaches to increase clinical outcomes in both hematological malignancies and solid tumors. For instance, recent clinical trial evaluated the safety and efficacy of the combination of anti-CD19 CAR T cells with ibrutinib in r/r chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) with partial response or stable disease after ibrutinib monotherapy, showing a high rate of sustained responses with the combination therapy. The study results demonstrated rapid tumor progression after interrupting of treatment with ibrutinib in CLL patients. Further, another clinical trial studies demonstrated that simultaneous administration of ibrutinib with CAR T cells resulted in higher rates of minimal residual disease (MRD) negative response.

Global CAR T Cell Therapy Market & Clinical Trials Insight 2028 Report Highlights:

Download Report: https://www.kuickresearch.com/report-car-t-cell-therapy-market

In another study by researchers on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma or colorectal cancer, OV Ad-EGFR BITE adenovirus, which is armed by EGFR-targeting, a bispecific T-cell engager was used. The data showed that concomitant use of this engineered virus and CAR T cells containing 4-1BB endodomain and targeting folate receptor alpha (FR-) antigen improved the function of CAR T cells. This is because of the BITE secretion of the contaminated cancer cells.

The encouraging response of combinational CAR T cell therapies has gained significant interest from pharmaceutical giants to invest in this segment. Currently, only a few clinical trials have been initiated by pharmaceutical companies which are evaluating the role of CAR T cell therapies in combination with oncolytic virus therapy and other cancer targeting regimens. The key companies in the market include Transgene, Merck, Janssen Pharmaceutical, Mustang Bio, and others. The pharmaceutical giants have also adopted strategic alliances including collaboration, partnership, or joint ventures to drive the research and development activities in this domain.

Recently in 2022, Transgene and PersonGen Biotherapeutics announced strategic research collaboration to access the safety and effectiveness of combination therapy associating PersonGen's TAA06 CAR-T cell injection with intravenous (IV) administration of an armed oncolytic virus, from Transgenes Invir.IO platform, in solid tumors including pancreatic cancer and brain glioma. The collaboration aims to demonstrate the combinations likely synergistic mechanisms to potentiate CAR-T cell therapy. Additionally, Celyad Oncology entered into clinical trial collaboration with Merck. Under the terms of agreement, the company will conduct phase-I KEYNOTE-B79 clinical trial, which will evaluate Celyad Oncologys investigational non-gene edited allogeneic CAR T candidate, CYAD-101, following FOLFIRI (combination of 5-fluorouracil, leucovorin and irinotecan) preconditioning chemotherapy with Mercks Keytrudain refractory metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients with microsatellite stable (MSS) / mismatch-repair proficient (pMMR) disease.

As per our report findings, the global cancer combination immunotherapy market is expected to surpass US$ XX Billion by 2028. The rising prevalence of various cancers such as hematological malignancies among the global population and rising adoption of CAR T cell therapy to treat cancer is boosting the growth of market. The rising awareness regarding the benefits of immunotherapy therapy over traditional therapies is further driving the demand of cancer combination immunotherapy among cancer patients. The immunotherapy in pipeline is likely to provide more treatment choices and better patient outcomes, which will further propel the growth of market.

Contact:

Neeraj Chawla

Kuick research

Research Head

+91-981410366

neeraj@kuickresearch.com

https://www.kuickresearch.com

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CAR T Cell Therapy Transforming Combination Cancer Therapies Research - BioSpace

Thirty-nine percent of oncologists working in the community setting refer 2 out of 5 patients to receive chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy at hospitals, according to data from a surveydisseminated by Cardinal Health Specialty Solutions.1

The research also showed that a decent portion of oncologists (27%), do not refer or administer CAR T-cell therapy at all, and a small proportion, 6%, perform in-office infusions. The survey raises questions about how to improve CAR T-cell availability for patients treated at community clinics. The recommendation born from the survey was to align stakeholders to address the concerns of the oncology population

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Bruce Feinberg, DO, vice president, chief medical officer Cardinal Health Specialty Solutions, discussed the use of CAR T-cell therapy in the community oncology setting, the challenges oncologist face, and the next wave of innovation to improve CAR T-cell administration for patients.

TARGETED ONCOLOGY: Can you discuss CAR T-cell therapies that are FDA-approved in hematologic malignancies? How have these therapies impacted treatment?

Feinberg: The story of CAR T goes back a little before the drugs were approved. The recognition that our view of cancer in general was thinking of cancer as an invader. The way we thought about bacteria or viruses so that they were the enemy that we are going to then destroy.The recognition that changed all that was rather than thinking about cancer as the external alien enemy, because cancer was created by cells, and they are human cells that are transforming, should we be thinking about how to then look at the problem a little bit differently and see it as a failure of the host, as opposed to the invader.The story really begins as we think about empowering the immune system. The first aspects of that go back to the 1980s with interferons, interleukins, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, and that was the first round.

The second way begins as we started to now think about the mid-2000 teams with the immune checkpoint inhibitors and start to look at manipulating T cells. The T-cell manipulation that begins with CART is not stopping with CAR T. It is going to be developing into bispecific antibodies, and natural killer cells that are then manipulated, so we are going to be seeing a rapid expansion of this host empowerment, how we really trigger the immune system to do its job, and then control this process, which really is a process of self as opposed to the external enemy.

Now that we have CAR T cells, what are the key challenges community oncologists facewith giving this treatment to patients?

The good news regarding these challenges is that we have had these challenges before. I mentioned that we think back in the early first phase of empowering the immune system with treatments like interleukin-2, we have the same kind of problem intensive treatment performed in hospital patients in ICU environments. We have also had that same world-specific to hematologic malignancies when we think about transplant, initially allogeneic transplant and then with autologous transplant, but similarly intensive complex programs, and multi-step approaches to patient care often done in tertiary care academic environments. There has been a background that really helps this field move forward quickly, based on that prior experience.

But the barriers that we have witnessed are those barriers we have seen before. Having an educated community workforce of healthcare providers who are knowledgeable about these treatments, an academic, tertiary care environment, where they remove all the barriers to those patient referrals, and hopefully patients who understand to some degree that complexity of the program will be willing to undergo consent for those procedures. Each of those barriers exist, but each of those barriers has been seen before, and we can rely on past experiences to help guide us forward.

Cardinal Health conducted a survey around in-office infusion and referrals for CAR T-cell therapy. How did community oncologists respond?

The research has been focused on both understanding physician perceptions. Are these therapies ready for primetime? Do they adopt and support these therapies? If they do support and adopt, what are the barriers to being able to refer patients for these treatments? Then lastly, what are the outcomes of these patients by getting into the chart itself and understanding the outcomes of patients? We have done all that in recent years, and some of that work was just recently presented at iSPOR.

At iSPOR, particularly regarding diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, there were 2 observational research studies that were done. One looked at the feasibility of being able to use that electronic health record in the community oncologist office to be able to understand the full journey of the patient who undergoes CAR T therapy, and can it understandthe scope and quality of the data that is housed within that medical record?

The second aspect of it was understanding. Could you be able to assess outcomes from the data within that medical record? So,2 parallel studies that were done specifically in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and also studies that have been done trying to look at new areas like multiple myeloma and understanding what physicians' perceptions about another hematologic malignancyin which there will be CAR T therapy available.

How do you interpret the findings from this survey?

For the community oncologist's electronic health record as a data source for conducting research on patients who are undergoing CAR T and other therapies, what we found is that the data source was rich and robust. For almost every major benchmark, in terms of the patient journey for CAR T,prior therapy, the timing of that prior therapy, the nature of that prior therapy, the referral to the tertiary center for consideration for CAR T, the actual evaluation for CAR T, the pheresis procedure, the site of the lympho-depletion procedure, chemotherapy, the actual administration of CAR T, the subsequent adverse event tracking, and the ER visits and hospitalizations, as well as the return to the community oncology clinic, all of that data was available within the community oncologist health record. That is a treasure trove of data that we can use as we start to expand the CAR T arsenal to understand the patient experience with CAR T in the real-world setting.

As we know, patients and clinical trials are often not representative of what is happening in real-world patients and clinical trials. First, less than 3% of adults with cancer participate in oncologic clinical trials, and those that do are healthier, they are less diverse, they are younger, they often are more health literate, and they have a higher socioeconomic status. That lack of representation becomes a problem that we start to extrapolate to all comers. Understanding what is happening in the real world to these patients is critical, and our data demonstrates that using the community oncologists to abstract the records is giving us that data that is necessary to understand the patient's experience. That is1 key outcome is that in the feasibility study, we saw as a strong positive for a new data source that can evaluate the real-world experience of patients undergoing CAR T-cell therapy.

The second outcome is that based on the feasibility of that data, could we find interesting details and insights about those patients being treated?We saw some interesting patterns of care that seemed to be geographically different. The timing of referrals and the nature of the CAR T-cell treatmentwere different as we looked across the major geographic regions of the country. Trying to understand that is going to be critical as the research continues, so are these trends and patterns related to Centers of Excellence and the KOLs, who often speak from those centers of excellence within a region?

Memorial Sloan Kettering often influences what happens in the Mid Atlantic, MD Anderson influences what happens in the South and the Southwest, and a center like UCLA influenceswhat's happens on the West Coast. As the Centers of Excellence have an influence, are we going to see differences in patterns of care in these different regions? Then, what were the outcome differences between those patterns of care?

Can you provide background on your study of CAR T-cell utilization patterns for relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in the US-based community hematologists/oncologists?

It has been almost 7 years since we first started to evaluate and publish on the broader world of empowering the host through immunologic therapies in the treatment of cancer. Our CAR T work now is 5 years, there have been a half dozen publications, similar tothe ones that we are talking about now, over the course of the past 5 years. We are trending that rate of adoption, that perceptions of physicians, the perceived barriers they find, and we are not just doing that assessment of physicians in the community, but we are also gathering experts from the major tertiary care centers to understand what they are perceiving as barriers and a general sense that CAR T therapy currently is under-utilized for those reasons and those barriers. What we find is there are still problems. The patients undergoing CAR T therapy have advanced disease, and are not clinically stable. The current timeline for CAR T, which can take 6 weeks from point of referral to point of CAR T-cell administration, often is problematic because of that patient instability.

Then, there are a host of new therapies which entered the armamentarium of treating physicians, which are making it confusing as to which is the appropriate second-line, third-line treatment. Recent data from ZUMA-7 [NCT03391466]trial has demonstrated that CAR T is a more effective therapythan autologous stem cell transplant as the first salvage treatment. That also adds a dynamic so that when we are doing this research, it can't be viewed as static. We have to be viewing it as a need for recurrent evaluations, as therapy indications change, and as new therapies come alive. Part of the basis for this research is really to be able to constantly trend what's happening in the field of newer therapies and how physicians perceive those new therapies and what are the outcomes of the patients. They're referring for those therapies. That was the focus of the work we've recently have done in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Based on these 2 studies, how do you think the challenges that oncologists are experiencing with CAR T cells are impacting patient care?

I think overall, it is a good story. I think all physicians who treat cancer, particularly patients who have refractory or relapsed disease, for whom cure has been elusive, are looking for new therapeutic options. CAR T came with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and excitement, but also with some concern about itstoxicity. Now, we are seeing second- and third-generation CAR T therapies, we're seeing expanded indications for earlier line of treatment. I think that excitement continues, and I think reservations are decreasing.

I think communication between tertiary care centers and community oncologists is improving, and we're getting closer to that point where patients will not have to leave home and leave their communities for this treatment, but we are not there yet.We are still testing and trying to understand what it will take for community physicians to participate in this aspect of care. I think that is going to be the next wave of innovation, and it will be operational innovation, rather than just drug development innovation, on how we can get these therapies to be done closer to the time of need.

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Understanding CAR T-Cell Therapy Utilization Patterns in the Community Oncology Setting - Targeted Oncology

ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc., (ITI), a privately-held clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the study of LAMP (Lysosome Associated Membrane Protein) -mediated nucleic acid-based immunotherapy today announced the appointment of Brian Stamper to Vice President, Cell Therapy Operations. Brian joins the company with over 20 years of experience in cell therapy operations, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and process engineering.

Prior to joining ITI, Mr. Stamper held director roles in manufacturing at Kite Pharma, a global biopharmaceutical company whose focus is cell therapy to treat and cure cancer. Prior to that, Mr. Stamper held positions of increasing responsibility in various operational areas at Lonza Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology, AstraZeneca Biologics and Eli Lilly & Company.

We are delighted to welcome Brian to the Immunomic team, said William Hearl, Ph.D., Immunomic Therapeutics Chief Executive Officer. Brians specific and deep knowledge of cell therapy manufacturing and operations will be invaluable as we prepare for phase 3 testing of ITI-1000, our lead dendritic cell therapy for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

Mr. Stamper holds a Master of Biotechnology Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Degree (MBEE) from Johns Hopkins University, a Master of Science Degree in Biologics Engineering from Purdue University, and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biochemistry from Indiana University.

About Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc.

Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI) is a privately held, clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of vaccines through its proprietary technology platform, UNiversal Intracellular Targeted Expression (UNITE), which is designed to utilize the bodys natural biochemistry to develop vaccines that generate broad immune responses. UNITE has a robust history of applications in various therapeutic areas, including infectious diseases, oncology, allergy and autoimmune diseases. ITI is primarily focused on applying the UNITE platform to oncology, where it could potentially have broad applications, including antigen-derived antibodies as biologics. The Company has built a pipeline leveraging UNITE with programs in oncology, animal health, infectious disease, and allergy. ITI maintains its headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. For more information, please visit http://www.immunomix.com.

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Immunomic Therapeutics Appoints Vice President, Cell Therapy - Business Wire

ABSTRACTS 7518, 7509, 8009

Promising clinical results with cellular therapies for patients with blood cancers highlight advances being presented by researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.

These findings include long-term outcomes of patients receiving an infusion of brexucabtagene autoleucel (KTE-X19) for mantle cell lymphoma, efficacy of gamma delta CAR T therapy for aggressive B-cell lymphoma and responses of umbilical cord blood-derived expanded natural killer cells when given together with combination therapy before stem cell transplant.

CAR T cell therapy shows durable responses after three years for patients with mantle cell lymphoma (Abstract 7518)Three-year follow-up data from the Phase II ZUMA-2 trial showed a long-term survival benefit and low disease relapse potential with one infusion of the anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy brexucabtagene autoleucel (KTE-X19) in patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). Principal investigator Michael Wang, M.D., professor of Lymphoma and Myeloma, presented results from the trial, and study results were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The updated results include all 68 patients treated with KTE-X19 on the trial with an additional two years of follow-up. After 35.6 months median follow-up, the overall response rate was 91%, with a 68% complete response rate. The median duration of response was 28.2 months, with 25 of 68 treated patients still in ongoing response at data cutoff.

This represents the longest follow-up of CAR T cell therapy in patients with mantle cell lymphoma to date, Wang said. It is encouraging to see this therapy induced durable long-term responses and a low relapse rate for these patients.

All patients had R/R disease after receiving up to five therapies, and all had received previous Brutons tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor therapy. BTK inhibitors have greatly improved outcomes in R/R MCL, yet patients who have subsequent disease progression are likely to have poor outcomes, with median overall survival of just six to 10 months. Few patients in this category qualify to proceed to an allogeneic stem cell transplant.

Response and survival benefits were positive regardless of the prior BTK inhibitor type. Ongoing effectiveness trended lower in patients with prior acalabrutinib exposure. More investigation is needed to determine the mechanism behind these differences. The findings support future study of CD19-directed CAR T cell therapy in patients with high-risk MCL in earlier treatment lines.

The researchers also evaluated minimal residual disease (MRD) as an exploratory endpoint using next-generation sequencing on 29 patients. Of those, 24 were MRD-negative at one month, and 15 of 19 with available data were MRD-negative at six months. Circulating tumor DNA analysis of MRD at three and six months was predictive of disease relapse.

The treatment was well tolerated, as reported in previous studies with this therapy. Only 3% of treatment-emergent adverse events (AE) of interest occurred since the primary report. The most frequent Grade 3 AE was neutropenia.

The study was funded by Kite Pharma, a Gilead Company. Wang has received research support and has served on the advisory board and as a consultant for Kite Pharma. A complete list of collaborating authors can be found within the abstract here.

Allogeneic gamma delta CAR T cell therapy displayed encouraging efficacy in B-cell lymphoma (Abstract 7509)In the Phase 1 GLEAN trial of ADI-001, an anti-CD20 CAR-engineered allogeneic gamma delta T cell product, the treatment was well tolerated and showed continued efficacy in patients with R/R aggressive B-cell lymphoma. Results from the ongoing trial were presented by Sattva Neelapu, M.D., professor ofLymphoma and Myeloma.

The first-in-human trial enrolled ten patients and eight were evaluable and monitored for at least 28 days. The median age was 62 years and patients received a median of 4 prior therapies. At Day 28, the overall response rate (ORR) and complete response (CR) rate based upon PET/CT was 75%. The ORR and CR rate was 80% at dose levels two and three combined. The ORR and CR rate in CAR-T relapsed patients was 100%.

The responses to ADI-001 in this population of heavily pre-treated and refractory lymphoma patients, including in those with prior CD19 CAR T cell therapy, is very promising, Neelapu said. These results suggest the potential for off-the-shelf gamma delta CAR T cell therapy to be an effective treatment possibility for patients with B-cell lymphoma.

While autologous CD19-targeted CAR T cell therapy has been effective in R/R large B-cell lymphoma, there remains a need for alternative cell-based therapies. This study uses a subset of T cells, known as gamma delta 1 T cells, isolated from the peripheral blood of donors as the basis for CAR T cell therapy.

Gamma delta 1 T cells are desirable because they are able to combine both innate and adaptive mechanisms to recognize and kill malignant cells, and high levels of these cells in hematologic and solid tumors are associated with improved clinical outcomes. ADI-001 expresses major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-independent gamma delta T cell receptors, therefore lowering the risk of graft versus host disease (GvHD) without the need for gene editing.

The median age on the study was 62 years, and patients had received a median of 4 prior therapies. The treatment was well tolerated with most related events being grade 1 or 2. There were two cases of cytokine release syndrome and one case of immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome. There were no reported cases of GvHD or dose-limiting toxicity.

Enrollment in the trial is ongoing and a potentially pivotal program is planned.

The study was funded by Adicet Bio, Inc. Neelapu has received research support and has served on the advisory board and as a consultant for Adicet Bio and has intellectual property related to cell therapy. A complete list of collaborating authors can be found within the abstract here.

Expanded NK cells combined with chemoimmunotherapy achieved durable responses in multiple myeloma (Abstract 8009)Results from the expansion phase of a Phase II clinical trial demonstrated that umbilical cord blood-derived expanded natural killer (NK) cells combined with chemotherapy and immunotherapies achieved durable responses in patients with multiple myeloma. Results from the completed clinical trial were presented by Samer Srour M.D., assistant professor of Stem Cell Transplantation & Cellular Therapy.

Thirty patients on the trial received NK cells plus elotuzumab (an immunotherapy monoclonal antibody), lenalidomide (an immunomodulatory drug) and high-dose melphalan chemotherapy before autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT).

At three months post-transplant, 97% of patients achieved at least a very good partial response (VGPR), including 76% with a complete response or stringent complete response, while 75% were minimal residual disease (MRD)-negative. At a median follow-up of 26 months, only four patients had progressed. At two years, the progression-free survival rate was 83% and the overall survival rate was 97%.

Patients with high-risk multiple myeloma have more options to treat their disease than previous years, but they continue to have poor outcomes, Srour said. These results indicate excellent hematologic and minimal residual disease responses and improved survival for these patients, suggesting this approach could provide an additional treatment opportunity.

NK cells are white blood cells that monitor the body for virus-infected and cancerous cells. MD Anderson researchers pioneered the approach to isolate and expand NK cells from umbilical cord blood to be used as cellular therapies. Lenalidomide enhances NK cell function and antibody-mediated cell toxicity against tumor targets. Preclinical data showed that lab-expanded NK cells demonstrated higher elotuzumab-mediated cytotoxicity against myeloma targets than non-expanded cells, and that the addition of elotuzumab to lenalidomide amplified the cord blood-NK cell antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity against a commonly used cell line to evaluate novel therapies for multiple myeloma (MM1.S) targets.

The study enrolled 30 patients with high-risk multiple myeloma, with a median age of 63. Twenty-nine patients (97%) had Revised Multiple Myeloma International Staging System (R-ISS) stages 2/3, 40% had 2 high-risk genetic abnormalities, and 23% had deletions or mutations of TP53. The primary endpoints were best response rate (VGPR) and MRD three months after ASCT.

Before the ASCT, stem cells are taken from the patient and stored. After treatment with the immunotherapy and chemotherapy drugs, stem cells are then returned to the patient to replace the blood-forming cells that were destroyed by the chemotherapy.

The treatment was well tolerated, with no unexpected serious adverse effects attributable to NK cells noted. The investigators plan to launch a randomized clinical trial to further explore this treatment combination for patients with high-risk multiple myeloma.

This study was supported with funding from the High-Risk Multiple Myeloma Moon Shot, part of MD Andersons Moon Shots Program, a collaborative effort to accelerate the development of scientific discoveries into clinical advances that save patients lives. The research also was supported by Celgene, a Bristol Myers Squibb company.

Srour has no conflicts of interest. A complete list of collaborating authors can be found within the abstract here.

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MD Anderson researchers present cellular therapy advances at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting - EurekAlert