Cytovia Therapeutics, Inc (“Cytovia”), an emerging biopharmaceutical company developing natural killer (NK) immunotherapies for cancer, today announces that it has acquired worldwide rights from CytoImmune Therapeutics for its novel EGFR Dual-targeting CAR to be used for NK cell therapy. Cytovia will conduct and finance all future development and will apply the EGFR Dual-targeting CAR to its iPSC CAR NK technology. CytoImmune will receive an upfront equity grant in Cytovia, future development milestones, and royalties.
Dr. Daniel Teper, Chairman and CEO of Cytovia added: “We are honored to collaborate with Dr. Caligiuri, a pioneer in translating biological research on NK cells into impactful therapeutics. He has published solid data with intracranial injection of EGFR CAR NK cells to support their clinical development in glioblastoma. Additionally, EGFR is a clinically validated target which will allow us to expand the use of NK cellular therapy in multiple solid tumors.”
Pre-clinical proof of concept data with intracranial administration of the EGFR Dual-targeting CAR-NK cells for the treatment of glioblastoma has been published in Nature Scientific Reports. The EGFR Dual-targeting CAR targets glioblastoma cells expressing EGFR wild-type and/or the mutant EGFR vIII. A single intracranial injection of EGFR CAR NK cells reduced the growth of glioblastoma and showed a statistically significant improvement in survival in animal models. The intracranial injection of the EGFR CAR NK cells remained localized in the brain without entering the systemic circulation or infiltrating extracranial organs or tissues, thus limiting toxicity.
Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, the scientific founder of CytoImmune, is joining the Cytovia Scientific Advisory Board. Dr Caligiuri is the Deana and Steve Campbell Physician in Chief Distinguished Chair and President of the City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, CA. Dr. Caligiuri is a world-renowned physician, scientist, builder, innovator, leader and visionary. He was elected a Member of the National Academy of Medicine for his work on NK cell biology and its clinical applications. He is a past President of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).
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Dr Caligiuri commented: “CAR NK cell therapy has the potential to transform cancer outcomes. We are excited to partner with Cytovia to rapidly bring EGFR Dual-targeting CAR NK cells, a next generation therapy, to patients with the ultimate goal of curing glioblastoma. Cytovia’s off-the-shelf iPSC CAR NK cell technology should increase the access to precision immunotherapy for many cancer patients.”
Source: Biospace