Penn spinoff Tmunity Therapeutics Inc. has entered into an exclusive license and research collaboration agreement with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to advance an experimental CAR T-cell therapy targeting neuroblastoma.
Financial terms of the deal — which reaffirms Philadelphia standing as a leader in developing new cell and gene therapies — are being kept confidential.
Neuroblastoma is a rare type of cancer that affects the development of the nervous system by attacking immature nerve cells as early as the embryonic stage. Each year, about 800 children in the United States are diagnosed with neuroblastoma. The overall survival rates is less than 50%.
CAR T-cell therapy is a form of immunotherapy that uses specially altered T cells — a part of the body’s immune system — to improve the ability of a person’s immune systems to identify and attack cancer cells. The process involves taking patient T cells from a blood sample, modifying them to produce structures called chimeric antigen receptors — or CARs — on their surface. The CAR T-cells are then reinfused into the patient.
The first CAR T-cell therapy approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the Novartis cancer treatment Kymriah, was developed by researchers at Penn Medicine and CHOP.
“This collaboration with CHOP expands our network of world-class academic collaborators and progresses our strategy to build a pediatric oncology franchise and advance novel T-cell therapies for devastating diseases,” said Dr. Usman “Oz” Azam, CEO of Tmunity, in a statement. “By combining the scientific insights and research at CHOP with the T-cell development, regulatory, and manufacturing capabilities and expertise at Tmunity, we created a formidable team to attack this deadly cancer.”
In addition to being a potential treatment for neuroblastoma, the T-cell therapy — developed by CHOP physician-researchers Drs. John Maris and Kristopher Bosse — also has potential in medulloblastoma, a type of brain cancer, and small cell lung cancer.
“This new collaboration builds upon our prior studies and pairs Tmunity’s experience in engineering and developing CAR-T cells with CHOP’s expertise in the biology of this family of cell surface molecules across neuroblastoma and several other cancers,” said Bosse, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and CHOP.
CHOP’s experimental neuroblastoma therapy targets GPC2, a gene Maris described as an important target in neuroblastoma and other aggressive malignancies. GPC2 is highly expressed on neuroblastomas, but not detectable at appreciable levels in normal childhood tissues.
Under the terms of its agreement, Tmunity will be responsible for leading the development, manufacturing, regulatory, and commercialization of the GPC2 T-cell therapy. The majority of the preclinical studies for the experimental therapy will be performed by CHOP.
Based in Philadelphia, Tmunity has its own manufacturing facility in East Norriton.
Source: Penn spinoff licenses experimental cancer immunotherapy from CHOP – Philadelphia Business Journal
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