Chimeric Therapeutics says it has successfully completed the planned medicating of its third dose cohort as part of its study evaluating the safety of the company’s CHM 1101 cell therapy to treat glioblastoma.
Glioblastoma is a rare but deadly aggressive cancer that can occur in the spinal cord or brain. The objectives of the study are to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the treatment and establish recommended dosing for a phase 2 trial.
Once the last patient of the third dose cohort successfully completes the evaluation period, the study will be able to advance to recruitment of patients at the fourth and final planned dose level.
Chimeric’s ambition is to cure cancer, not simply slow its progress, by developing cutting-edge cell therapy treatments aimed at killing the molecules that drive cancer cells and promote metastases.
One killing agent it uses is CAR T or chimeric antigen receptor T-cell — a specially altered T cell that is naturally part of the immune system.
CHM 1101 is one product in the Chimeric’s CAR T therapy pipeline.
The treatment utilises a 36-amino acid peptide called chlorotoxin — derived from deathstalker scorpion venom —in its tumour targeting.
The clinical trial is taking place at City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organisations in the United States. Chimeric has licenced the exclusive global rights to intellectual property covering the chlorotoxin CAR-T cells from City of Hope.
Another CHM 1101 phase 1 trial, into metastatic melanoma, is planned before its expansion into testing on other solid tumours.
Chimeric is facing a busy period of trialling on the horizon with a portfolio of four phase 1 clinical trials beginning next year into blood cancers and solid tumours.
Last month it established a new role, Vice-President Clinical Operations and Data Management, to focus on leading those trials.
Chimeric also seems to be on a sound financial footing to fund them.
The company raised $14.4 million in an entitlement offer announced in February, established an equity placement agreement with L1 Capital for up to $30 million and had $18.4 million in cash and equivalents at the end of June.
Just last month Chimeric signed a sponsored research deal with Case Western Reserve University in the United States to develop the company’s NK cell therapy portfolio to assist in its fight against cancer.
The university research program is led by Dr David Wald who developed the CORE NK technology and will work closely with Chimeric to develop a number of next-generation products through to pre-clinical development.
The next-generation developments will be based on the biotech company’s CHM 0201 off-the-shelf NK cell platform that successfully demonstrated safety and efficacy during clinical trials completed at the Seidman Cancer Centre in Ohio earlier this year.
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