Tokyo, Japan, [DATE] — AvenCell Japan, a wholly owned subsidiary of AvenCell Therapeutics, a private, clinical-stage biotechnology company developing best-in-class CAR-T therapies for hematologic cancers and autoimmune diseases, today announced it has been awarded a grant of up to $40 million from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED). This non-dilutive funding will support the worldwide development of AvenCell’s AVC203 candidate – an IND-stage, dual-antigen (CD19 & CD20) allogeneic CAR-T therapy for applications in B-cell Lymphomas.
AvenCell’s unique and proprietary allogeneic technology is differentiated from numerous previous cell engineering approaches by applying multiple gene editing steps that ensure a patient’s immune system (both innate and adaptive components) is left with no ability to reject the donor cells. Importantly, AvenCell’s approach also assures that the healthy donor T-cell fitness and potency are not compromised during the cell manufacturing process. These two requirements, together, have represented an impasse to progress in the field that has not yet been surmounted by other previous “first generation allo” approaches. Early clinical data emerging from AvenCell’s AVC201 clinical dose-escalation program for relapsed & refractory AML patients confirm that these allogeneic cells expand robustly and consistently (well above levels seen in similar autologous experience), and that they remain active well beyond the typical one-month “rejection hurdle” where most other allogeneic candidates have failed to persist.
“We are thrilled to have been selected by AMED to participate in its program to strengthen the Japan Pharmaceutical Startup Ecosystem. Lymphomas and leukemias remain an area of high unmet medical need in all parts of the world, including Japan, and we are delighted to collaborate directly with many key opinion leaders and a broad set of stakeholders in this region to bring forward a truly paradigm-shifting therapeutic with meaningful benefit to patients” said Andrew Schiermeier, Ph.D., President & CEO of AvenCell Therapeutics.