Prescient Therapeutics in strong cash position to support OmniCAR clinical studies
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Clinical-stage oncology company Prescient Therapeutics (ASX: PTX) has announced it has ended the December quarter with a cash balance of $14.77 million, placing it in a strong financial position to support its multiple cancer therapy programs.
This cash position includes a research and development tax refund received from the Australian government in November.
Cash outflows of $1.45 million for the quarter included costs relating to ongoing clinical trials and manufacturing for its targeted therapy candidates PTX-100 and PTX-200 as well as the development of the OmniCAR next-generation CAR-T platform.
Highlights of the quarter include the release of new pre-clinical data that outlined the key attributes of OmniCAR to generate CAR-T cell therapies that can be controlled post-infusion, re-armed and redirected from one cancer antigen to another. This outcome showed the next-generation potential of Prescient’s technology in killing multiple cancer cells.
New advisory board appointments
Also during the period, the company welcomed two highly-respected international medical and scientific experts to its scientific advisory board, Dr Marco Davila and Professor Andrew Tsourkas.
Dr Davila is a medical oncologist at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida, United States, whose research involves the pre-clinical development and clinical translation of gene-engineered cell therapies.
Professor Tsourkas is a Professor of Bioengineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania and co-director for the Center for Targeted Therapeutic and Translational Nano-medicine. He is also co-inventor of the patents developed at Penn and licensed by Prescient to form OmniCAR.
Recent developments
Earlier this month (after the reporting period), Prescient received accreditation by the Office of the Gene Regulator to enable clinical studies for OmniCAR.
This accreditation is a requirement to enable a company to conduct clinical trials in Australia involving gene-edited cells such as CAR-T therapies and is separate from approval by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Prescient managing director and chief executive officer Steven Yatomi-Clarke said the accreditation is an “important step in the regulatory process to conduct a CAR-T trial in Australia”.
“In addition to our research and development, Prescient is undertaking a significant body of regulatory work as we progress the OmniCAR programs towards clinical trials,” he said.
In its quarterly report, the company said it is embarking on the new calendar year “great optimism and excitement”.
“The whole team is focused and driven to succeed in the mission to improve cancer treatment by giving doctors cutting-edge therapies to help patients with cancer.”