Date: 2015-04-13
Type of information: Exercise of an option agreement
Compound: CAR-CD44v6 (immune-gene therapy project against cancer developed using the Chimeric Antigen Receptor CD44v6)
Company: Molmed (Italy) San Raffaele Hospital (Italy)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Type agreement: exercise of an option agreement
Action mechanism: cell immunotherapy/gene therapy. The CAR-CD44v6 is part of the CAR-T family: lymphocytes armed with chimeric receptors that have demonstrated high anti-tumour potential, also against tumours. The CAR-CD44v6 project, which has already been successfully tested in appropriate murine models, represents a product candidate with a high therapeutic potential, as it specifically recognises variant 6 (v6) of the antigen CD44 (CD44v6), expressed by many haematological malignancies, including acute myeloid leukaemia and multiple myeloma - as well as by several epithelial tumours, including breast, colon, pancreatic, head-and-neck and lung carcinomas.
Disease: solid tumours, hematological cancers
Details:
- • On April 13, 2015, MolMed announced having exercised its option right for the purchase of the San Raffaele Hospital (OSR) immune-gene therapy project against cancer developed using the Chimeric Antigen Receptor CD44v6 (CAR-CD44v6) with potential application in several haematological and solid tumour indications. The CAR-CD44v6 project has been acquired on the basis of the agreement signed in 2001 between MolMed and OSR, with which the Company holds an option right for the exploitation of intellectual property generated by OSR research projects in the fields of gene and molecular therapy for oncology and AIDS.
- Claudio Bordignon, Chairman of the Board and CEO of MolMed, commented: \"The acquisition of this project allows MolMed to significantly expand its product pipeline, and enter one of today’s most promising fields of new anti-tumour strategies, i.e. the immune-gene therapy of cancer. The CAR-CD44v6 project will benefit not only from our extensive experience and know-how in the field of gene and cell therapy, but also from the conjugation with the suicide gene TK, becoming the first CAR-T product to integrate a control system already extensively tested and validated in clinical trials”.
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