Prescient Therapeutics teams up with Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre to advance CAR-T cancer therapy
Prescient is the only ASX-listed company developing CAR-T programs.
Prescient Therapeutics (ASX: PTX) has moved closer to developing its unique CAR-T cancer technology after revealing a collaboration with the world-renowned Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Peter Mac) in Melbourne.
The collaboration is expected to leverage Prescient’s proprietary CAR-T cancer therapy and extend its portfolio.
According to Prescient Therapeutics, it is the only ASX-listed stock with CAR-T technology, which is a type of cellular therapy that reprograms a cancer patient’s immune cells to recognise and destroy cancer.
Peter Mac’s professor Phil Darcy will lead the research, with Prescient to own any intellectual property arising from the program.
Prof Darcy said CAR-T therapy had shown “strong therapeutic activity” in certain haematological malignancies.
However, its impact on solid cancers hasn’t been as strong.
“The approach we are exploring with Prescient may reprogram the tumour microenvironment that results in significantly enhancing CAR-T cell anti-tumour activity,” Prof Darcy added.
Cell therapy enhancements programs
The collaboration with Peter Mac adds to the Prescient’s current pipeline of cell therapy enhancements (CTE) programs.
Another CTE program is underway with Carina Biotech, with both this and the Peter Mac research aiming to generate technologies that can complement existing CAR-T approaches.
The company added the CTE research aims to develop efficacy and efficiency enhancements that appeal to third parties in the field that may incorporate the technology into their own programs under licence.
“We are working against time for many cancer patients so joining the world-leading experts in this field at Peter Mac will greatly enhance our collective efforts to advance these new treatments and get them to patients who will potentially benefit,” Prescient chief executive officer Steven Yatomi-Clarke said.
“Prescient is the only ASX-listed company developing CAR-T programs and this is an important strategic initiative to complement our programs in CTE,” he added.
Cancer therapy PTX-100
Today’s news of the Peter Mac research collaboration follows Prescient revealing earlier this week studies on its PTX-100 drug had advanced.
Phase 1b of PTX-100 is proceeding to the next dose level of 2,000mg/m2 after successful completion in the second cohort of 1,000mg/m2.
The three people in the second study were heavily pre-treated patients suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer, peripheral T cell lymphoma and angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma.
Prescient’s PTX-100 is a Ras pathway inhibitor designed to ultimately lead to the death of cancer cells.
This phase 1b basket study aims to determine the safety, dose regimen and treatment schedule of PTX-100 as a single agent in several cancers where Ras and RhoA mutations are prevalent.
Analysis of the first cohort that received 500mg/m2 has shown stable disease and partial response in two patients.