Posted: 8 November
The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (“Peter Mac”) and Cartherics Pty Ltd (“Cartherics”) announced that they have entered into a Collaborative Development Program Agreement (CDPA) to develop Cartherics’ proprietary autologous CAR-T cell therapy (CTH-001) for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL).
“Patients with advanced stages of cutaneous T-cell lymphomas often have few treatment options left when their disease progresses, and experience lower quality of life and poor life expectancy. We are impressed by the laboratory results achieved by Cartherics’ scientists. We are eager to see if evidence of efficacy in preclinical models translates into an effective, safe therapy for patients using a highly innovative approach with autologous CAR-T cells,” said Professor Simon Harrison from Peter Mac.
Professor Alan Trounson, CEO of Cartherics, said “We are excited to be working with a premier global cancer centre to advance CTH-001 into human clinical trials. We are very pleased to partner with Peter Mac’s Centre of Excellence in Cellular Immunotherapy, which was established in 2019 with backing from the Australian Federal Government and generous donors to the Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation. In addition to their outstanding clinical research in oncology, Peter Mac through Cell Therapies Pty Ltd has substantial experience in manufacturing of cell therapies for cancer.”
The key aspects of the collaborative research are setting up clinical-scale manufacturing of CTH-001 and conducting a Phase I clinical trial. This will initially enrol six patients with refractory CTCL. The primary goal of the clinical trial is to investigate the safety of CTH-001 in this patient population.
