Stem Cell Clinic

Cell Medica buys clinical-phase WT1-TCR cell therapy – FierceBiotech

Cell Medica has bought Catapult Therapy TCR for its clinical-phase WT1 T-cell receptor (TCR) cell therapy. Catapult Therapy TCR developed the therapy as a treatment for blood cancers, but Cell Medica thinks it can retool it to take out solid tumors.

Production of the cell therapy entails modifying a patients own T cells to identify and destroy cells that express the WT1 protein, which is associated with mesothelioma and ovarian cancer. But early development of the WT1-TCR cell therapy has eschewed these solid tumors in favor of going after acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome.

That is set to change under the ownership of Cell Medica. The British biotech plans to apply the Dominant TCR technology it licensed from UCL last year to the cell therapy to equip it to treat solid tumors. The technology is designed to increase the efficacy of engineered T cells by dialing up the expression of TCRs.

Our objective is to show how we can enhance any existing TCR cell therapy with the Dominant TCR technology to create a more effective treatment for patients with solid tumors who otherwise have a very poor prognosis, Cell Medica CEO Gregg Sando said in a statement.

Cell Medica plans to work on the therapy over the next year or so with a view to starting a phase 1/2 trial late in 2018. Catapult Therapy TCR has already tested the cell therapy in a small number of patients. But those studies looked at the unenhanced version of the candidate in blood cancers.

The earlier trials were sponsored by the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, which set up Catapult Therapy TCR in collaboration with UCL Business and Imperial Innovationsnow called Touchstone Innovationsin 2014. CGT Catapult committed 10 million to the subsidiary. Financial details of the takeover by Cell Medica werent disclosed.

CGT Catapult will remain involved in advancing the cell therapy. Cell Medica is setting up a cell therapy manufacturing operation at CGT Catapults site in Stevenage. That operation will produce the WT1-TCR cell therapy and potentially other candidates. Cell Medica plans to transfer the WT1-TCR cell therapy to the site over the next 12 months while working with CGT Catapult to develop a commercial-scale production process.

The agreement continues a busy period for Cell Medica. Over the past 12 months the biotech has built out its technology base through the UCL licensing pact, agreements with Baylor College of Medicine and the acquisition of Delenex Therapeutics. Cell Medica followed up on these deals by raising 60 million to expand its clinical-phase pipeline.

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Cell Medica buys clinical-phase WT1-TCR cell therapy - FierceBiotech

Apollo Hospitals bring innovative cell therapy to treat joint pain … – Hindustan Times

Making uses of the advances in cell therapy, Apollo Hospitals on Tuesday announced partnership with RMS REGROW, to offer new regenerative medicine cell therapy products that will be a boon for patients suffering from bone and cartilage damage.

The two products- Ossron and Chondron, will address unmet clinical needs in the orthopaedic market with respect to sports injuries, accidents and alternate to hip replacements and knee replacements for a young arthritic knee.

In an exclusive tie up between Apollo Hospitals and RMS Regrow, the treatment therapy will be made available across all Apollo Hospitals, Apollo Spectra Hospitals and Apollo clinics in India.

Through several clinical trials and evaluation studies that spanned around 8 years, the company has achieved the market authorization for the two cell therapy products.

Doctors will be trained in using the products by conducting live surgical workshops and conferences etc. both nationally and internationally.

Apollo Group wants to encourage research and innovation within India for the people of India. Our association with RMS Regrow is a step to inspire talent in India to further the advancement in developing innovative healthcare treatments to reduce the growing disease burden in India, said Dr Prathap C Reddy, founder-chairman, Apollo Hospitals.

Yash Sanghavi, founder and CEO- RMS REGROW, said, It has taken 8 years of dedicated effort and innovative research to develop the two revolutionary products that will change the modalities for bone and cartilage treatment in India.

Since last 70 years, only a handful of New Chemical Entities (NCE) have been developed in India, which demonstrates a dearth of innovator drugs and new medical technologies to address a large market of bone and joint disorders.

In India, more than 15 lakh orthopaedic procedures are performed each year and Regenerative Cell Therapy is a revolutionary treatment methodology which has immense potential to liberate consumers from Joint pain.

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Apollo Hospitals bring innovative cell therapy to treat joint pain ... - Hindustan Times

Swedish Biotech publishes Long-Term Data on a Dendritic Cell Therapy for Cancer – Labiotech.eu (blog)

Immunicum has reported new data on long-term follow-up of patients treated with ilixadencel, a unique dendritic cell therapy against cancer.

Immunicum is a Swedish biotech developing a cell-based therapy against cancer. The company has just published detailed results of aPhase I/II trial evaluating its lead candidate ilixadencel, which is currently in Phase II to treat metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC),for which no effective treatments are available.

The experimental therapy was administered in combination with Pfizers sunitinib, approved for the treatment of RCC, and Immunicum has kept monitoring the 11 patients after officially completing the study in 2014. As of 2017, five patients are still alive and the mean overall survival has reached 48 months, which is a huge improvement when compared to the approximately 15 months expected with standard therapies.

CT scans of the brain of a patient that showed a complete disappearance of all brain and liver metastases (a) before and (b) 6 months aftercompleting the treatment

Ilixadencel, previously known as Intuvax, is composed ofactivated dendritic cellsderived from healthy donors that are injected into the tumor, where theyrecruit the patients own immune system. Its an off-the-shelf cell therapyobtained from healthy donors, which would result in easier manufacturing and lower costs as compared to patient-derived cells.

In theory, this strategy could be applied toany injectable solid tumor,whichis particularly exciting given that targetingsolid tumors is still a huge challenge. We believe that the future of cancer treatment lies in the rapidly evolving landscape of combination therapies and ilixadencel is uniquely positioned to become an integral part of modern combination regimens, saidAlex Karlsson-Parra, CSO of Immunicum, in a statement.

According to Carlos de Sousa, CEO of the company, the effort to publish the results is part of the companys strategy to communicate its data and build validation for its technology. As he commented during an oncology panel at Labiotech Refresh, the regulatory authorities in Europe are struggling to keep up with the rapid advances in the field.

Immunicum is not the only developing cell-based therapies for cancer. The French PDC*line Pharma is also focusing on dendritic cells, while many others compete to bring the promising CAR-T cell technology to the market.Ensuring the data is available is a great initiative to help build laws that will adequately regulate these novel technologies.

Images via xrender / Shutterstock;Laurell et al., Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2017 5:52

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Swedish Biotech publishes Long-Term Data on a Dendritic Cell Therapy for Cancer - Labiotech.eu (blog)

Vineti to fast-track cell and gene therapy tech with $14 million first funding round – Healthcare IT News

San Francisco-based Vineti, a cell and gene therapy software and analytics company, has closed on Series A funding round that pulled together nearly $14 million.

Backing came from General Electric Ventures, Mayo Clinic and new investor Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

The company will use the funds to continue growing its team and to deliver cloud-based software to improve patient access. It also plans to speed its work on life-saving treatment delivery and to promote safety and FDA compliance for individualized cell therapies.

The Vineti platform integrates logistics, manufacturing and clinical data.

Physicians, medical researchers and pharmaceutical companies are working together to develop successful therapies, transitioning from a one-size-fits-all model to individualized treatments for each patient, Vineti CEO Amy DuRoss said in a statement. But, the process for administering these treatments is broken and outdated, restricting access to terminal patients and creating unnecessary risk.

DuRoss added that Vineti developed the platform to ensure treatments reach the patients who need them the most. She added that many patients who are excellent candidates dont have access to the most innovative therapies and discovery timelines are more challenging than necessary.

GE Ventures formed Vineti based on customer requests to bridge the technology gap between individualized cell therapies and production.

Modern technology solutions to address complex production and delivery processes are lacking. GE Ventures, Mayo Clinic and DFJ have invested in Vineti to rectify these problems.

Vineti is led by DuRoss, Chief Strategy Officer Heidi Hagen and CTO Razmik Abnous.

Twitter: @Bernie_HITN Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com

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Vineti to fast-track cell and gene therapy tech with $14 million first funding round - Healthcare IT News

Grape-based compounds kill colon cancer stem cells in mice – Medical Xpress

June 19, 2017 A cancer stem cell before and after treatment with grape seed compounds. Credit: Patrick Mansell

Compounds from grapes may kill colon cancer stem cells both in a petri dish and in mice, according to a team of researchers.

The compoundsresveratrol which are found in grape skins and seeds, could also eventually lead to treatments to help prevent colon cancer, said Jairam K.P. Vanamala, associate professor of food sciences, Penn State. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society.

"The combination of resveratrol and grape seed extract is very effective at killing colon cancer cells," said Vanamala, who is also a faculty member at the Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute. "And what we're learning is the combination of these compounds is not toxic to healthy cells."

The researchers, who reported their findings in a recent issue of BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, suggest that the findings could pave the way for clinical testing of the compounds on human colon cancer, which is the second most common cancer in women and the third in men. If successful, the compounds could then be used in a pill to help prevent colon cancer and lessen the recurrence of the disease in colon cancer survivors.

"We are particularly interested in targeting stem cells because, according to cancer stem-cell theory, cancerous tumors are driven by cancer stem cells," said Vanamala. "Cancer stem cells are capable of self-renewal, cellular differentiation and maintain their stem cell-like characteristics even after invasion and metastasis."

When taken separately in low doses, resveratrol and grape seed extract are not as effective against cancer stem-cell suppression as when they are combined together, according to the researchers.

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The combined effect of grape seed extract and resveratrol may offer clues as to why cultures with a plant-based diet tend to have lower colon cancer rates, said Vanamala. These diets may naturally be providing a shotgun approach to cancer prevention by using a wide variety of beneficial compounds to target multiple pathways that cancer stem cells use to survive.

"This also connects well with a plant-based diet that is structured so that the person is getting a little bit of different types of plants, of different parts of the plant and different colors of the plant," said Vanamala. "This seems to be beneficial for not only promoting bacterial diversity, but also preventing chronic diseases and eliminating the colon cancer stem cells."

If successful in human trials, the compounds could be taken in low doses using currently available supplements for grape seed extract and resveratrol, which are also found in wine.

However, he added that there is still more work to do to understand the mechanism behind the anti-cancer properties of the grape extract, as well as other colorful fruits and vegetables. Further research would be aimed at finding specific anti-cancer compounds and better understanding how those compounds work synergistically to create more effective colon-cancer prevention and treatment strategies.

For the animal study, the researchers separated 52 mice with colon cancer tumors into three groups, including a control group and groups that were fed either the grape compounds or sulindac, an anti-inflammatory drug, which was chosen because a previous study showed it significantly reduced the number of tumors in humans.

The incidence of tumors was suppressed in the mice consuming the grape compounds alone by 50 percent, similar to the rate in the group consuming the diet with sulindac.

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Grape-based compounds kill colon cancer stem cells in mice - Medical Xpress

Apollo Hospitals ties up with cell therapy firm – Hindu Business Line

Partnership will help hospital chain offer innovative orthopaedic treatment

New Delhi, June 19:

Patients suffering from orthopaedic problems such as arthritis may now have a better and painless option than replacement surgeries.

The countrys largest hospital chain, Apollo Hospitals, on Monday entered into a tie-up with a Pune-based up-and-coming regenerative medicine company RMS Regrow to offer cell therapy treatment for bone and cartilage problems.

This exclusive partnership with RMS Regrow will allow the Chennai-headquartered hospital chain to offer advanced cell therapy treatment to patients suffering from a variety of bone or cartilage related problems caused by sports injury, accidents, ageing or wear and tear. In India, more than 1.5 million orthopaedic procedures are performed every year.

The techniques developed by RMS Regrow Ossron for bone and Chondron for cartilage are among the first set of cell therapy-based treatment modalities to receive regulatory approvals in India, said Satyen Sanghavi, Chief Scientific Officer, RMS, at a press conference here.

Cell therapy is a technique in which healthy cellular material is injected into a patient to replace diseased or dysfunctional cells.

In orthopaedic problems, it has the potential to be an alternative to knee and hip replacements.

According to Prathap Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals, the treatment will be available in 40 Apollo hospitals at a cost of 3-4 lakh, which is a fraction of the cost that one needs for similar treatment in advanced countries.

Trials carried out

Across its hospitals, as many as 200 orthopaedics have been trained to carry out the procedures which involve harvesting healthy bone or cartilage tissues from the patient and growing them outside the body before transplanted back into the affected body part.

The techniques have been found to be not only safe but very effective, Sanghavi said. While Chondron clinical trials were carried out in 350 patients, the Ossron modality was tested in 150 patients suffering from bone related problems.

Most of these trials were done in partnership with Apollo, he said.

The techniques were found to be more effective in people the age of 65 years.

According to Sanghavi, RMS Regrow developed these techniques at an R&D cost of 45 crore and over a period of eight years.

(This article was published on June 19, 2017)

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Apollo Hospitals ties up with cell therapy firm - Hindu Business Line

Cell Medica Acquires WT1 Cancer Immunotherapy from Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult – Business Wire (press release)

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cell Medica today announced the acquisition of Catapult Therapy TCR Limited, a subsidiary of Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult), and the initiation of a collaboration to establish cell therapy manufacturing for Cell Medica at CGT Catapults GMP manufacturing facility in Stevenage, UK. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Catapult Therapy TCR Ltd is a special purpose company set up by CGT Catapult, UCL Business and Imperial Innovations, and managed by CGT Catapult, for the development of the WT1 T cell receptor (TCR) cell therapy discovered through research at University College London (UCL) and Imperial College London. The WT1-TCR cell therapy enhances the immune system to fight cancer by genetically engineering the patients T cells to target WT1, a tumour-associated antigen which is expressed in both solid tumours and blood cancers.

CGT Catapult has been developing the WT1-TCR cell therapy for the treatment of acute myeloid leukaemia and myelodysplastic syndrome. Early development work, including initiation of a Phase I trial, was conducted at UCL and Imperial College London with funding from the UK charity Bloodwise. CGT Catapult advanced the product to a larger Phase I/II clinical trial and developed an improved manufacturing process. Having completed the treatment of eight patients with promising results, CGT Catapult will now transfer the WT1-TCR cell therapy rights to Cell Medica for continued development towards regulatory approval.

The WT1-TCR cell therapy will be integrated with the Dominant TCR platform technology which Cell Medica licensed from UCL Business in 2016. Applying the Dominant TCR technology to the WT1-TCR cell therapy is expected to result in a more efficacious product with the potential to treat patients with solid tumours such as mesothelioma and ovarian cancer, which have proven very difficult to treat with conventional therapies. Cell Medica is planning to initiate a Phase I/II clinical trial with a Dominant WT1-TCR version in late 2018.

Cell Medica and CGT Catapult have also initiated a collaboration to establish cell therapy manufacturing operations for Cell Medica at the GMP production facility recently built by CGT Catapult in Stevenage. The collaboration will include transferring the current WT1-TCR cell therapy manufacturing process to Stevenage over the next twelve months while Cell Medica and CGT Catapult work to develop a commercial scale production process using advanced manufacturing techniques. Cell Medica will also evaluate the feasibility of manufacturing additional cell therapy products at the site.

The acquisition of the WT1-TCR cell therapy leverages the investment we made in 2016 for exclusive rights to the Dominant TCR technology, said Gregg Sando, CEO of Cell Medica. Our objective is to show how we can enhance any existing TCR cell therapy with the Dominant TCR technology to create a more effective treatment for patients with solid tumours who otherwise have a very poor prognosis. We are also looking forward to an important collaboration with CGT Catapult to initiate manufacturing at the Stevenage GMP facility where we will work together on scale-up strategies for commercial production.

About Cell Medica

Cell Medica is committed to transforming patients lives through developing the significant therapeutic potential of cellular immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer. In collaboration with our strategic partners, Cell Medica is developing a range of products using three proprietary technology platforms including activated T cells, chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) and engineered T cell receptors (TCRs). Our lead product is CMD-003 is being tested in an international Phase II trial for the treatment of cancers associated with the oncogenic Epstein Barr virus. We are working with the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of North Carolina to develop next generation CAR-modified NKT cells including an off-the-shelf product. In the field of engineered TCRs, we are collaborating with University College London to develop the Dominant TCR technology platform. Cell Medica is headquartered in London with subsidiaries in Zurich and Houston.

About the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult

The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult was established as an independent centre of excellence to advance the growth of the UK cell and gene therapy industry, by bridging the gap between scientific research and full-scale commercialisation. With more than 120 employees focusing on cell and gene therapy technologies, it works with partners in academia and industry to ensure these life-changing therapies can be developed for use in health services throughout the world. It offers leading-edge capability, technology and innovation to enable companies to take products into clinical trials and provide clinical, process development, manufacturing, regulatory, health economics and market access expertise. Its aim is to make the UK the most compelling and logical choice for UK and international partners to develop and commercialise these advanced therapies. The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult works with Innovate UK. For more information please visit ct.catapult.org.uk or visit http://www.gov.uk/innovate-uk.

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Cell Medica Acquires WT1 Cancer Immunotherapy from Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult - Business Wire (press release)