Inceptor introduces new non-viral transduction technology to help CAR-T fight solid tumors, what is the progress of solid tumor cell therapy in China?

Avectas received $8.
7 million in 2021 to develop its cell engineering platform, SOLUPORE^®, the company's patented non-viral cell engineering technology that permeabilizes target cell membranes and allows efficient transfer of loads into cells, enabling reversible osmosis through gentle chemically mediated membranes, A high level of cell viability and function
can be maintained.
This technology enables efficient and safe intracellular cargo delivery for cell engineering, enabling multiple sequential edits in a cell population, a proliferation method independent of the endocytic pathway that can shorten overall manufacturing time and reduce production costs
.

The technology platform is suitable for mRNA, DNA and proteins, including gene editing tools such as CRISPR, which can be directly applied to the development of gene therapies or to deliver payloads to primary T cells and NK cells for immuno-oncology and gene editing applications
.
The technique aims to improve the quality of engineered T cells and, ultimately, their durability
in the tumor microenvironment.

Founded in 2020, Inceptor raised $26 million in seed funding last June and closed a $37 million Series A funding round
in May.
Last October, Inceptor Bio acquired Arranta Bio's process development and GMP clinical manufacturing facilities to establish its own cell therapy process and clinical supply trials
.

In December 2021, Inceptor signed a licensing agreement with the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) to advance the development of the CAR-M platform for solid tumors; In June 2022, it cooperated with the University of Minnesota to establish a new iPSC platform, which supports the M1 anti-tumor phenotype, which can improve the phagocytic ability of macrophages, and can be used in the novel co-stimulatory domain
of CAR-NK therapy.
At present, the company's CAR-T and CAR-M projects have entered phase 1 clinical trials, and it is also continuing to develop the CAR-NK platform
.

The latest progress of solid tumor cell therapy in China

According to statistics, there were about 19.
3 million newly diagnosed cancer cases and nearly 10 million cancer patients dying in the world in 2020, and solid tumors accounted for a higher
proportion of the world's high-incidence tumors.
Data show that cell therapy clinical trials for the treatment of solid tumors have accounted for 43% of the total number of cell therapy clinical trials, but most of them are still in the phase 1 clinical trial stage
.
In September, many cell therapies in China made progress
in clinical application and approval.

➤ On September 28, 2022, Shanghai Keji Pharmaceutical Co.
, Ltd.
"CT041 autologous CAR T cell injection" was accepted
by CDE for new indications.
CT041 is the only IND-licensed CAR-T cell therapy targeting CLDN18.
2, which is mainly used for the treatment of gastric cancer/esophageal gastric junction adenocarcinoma and pancreatic cancer
.
At the beginning of this year, CT041 has been approved by CDE to enter confirmatory phase 2 clinical trials, and is the world's first and only CAR-T product under development for solid tumors that has entered confirmatory phase 2 clinical trials
.

➤ On September 26, 2022, Chongqing Precision Biotechnology Co.
, Ltd.
's solid tumor CAR-T cell product "C-13-60 cell preparation" IND has been accepted, which is a CAR-T cell injection targeting CEA for the treatment of ≥ 18-year-old CEA-positive advanced malignant solid tumors, and its indications are for colorectal cancer, gastric cancer and esophageal cancer, etc.
It is the first CEA-targeted CAR-T product
in China accepted by the National Center for Drug Evaluation.

➤ On September 24, 2022, according to the official website of CDE, Shenzhen Pregen Biopharmaceutical Co.
, Ltd.
's "TCR-T cell injection targeting HLA-A*02:01/NY-ESO-1" was declared for clinical trial, which was independently developed by Pregen for unresectable, recurrent or metastatic soft tissue sarcoma
.

➤ On September 7, 2022, according to the official website of CDE, the "autologous RAK cell injection" of Pricewaterside Biomedical Technology Co.
, Ltd.
was declared for clinical trial, according to the official website of Pricewatercell, the product is a solid tumor RAK cell therapy, RAK cells are a class of cells with anti-tumor activity obtained after cytokines are induced in vitro and expanded in large quantities, with strong anti-tumor killing ability and non-restrictive tumor
。

➤ On September 6, 2022, the clinical trial application of "KQ-L6 autologous chimeric antigen receptor T cell injection" of Shanghai Keqi Pharmaceutical Technology Co.
, Ltd.
has been accepted by CDE, which is a CAR-T therapy
that can be used to treat relapsed/refractory advanced solid tumors with positive TM4SF1 expression.

➤ On September 4, 2022, Guangdong Tiankeya Biomedical Technology Co.
, Ltd.
's clinical trial application for "TC-N201 injection" was accepted, which is an immunosuppressive molecularly modified TCR-T product with indications for lung and digestive tract cancer
.

brief summary

Due to tumor microenvironment inhibition, tumor heterogeneity, cell depletion and other factors, cell therapy needs to overcome more difficulties than hematological tumors in the face of solid tumors, and the medical community is actively developing various innovative cell therapies to fill the gap
in the field of solid tumor treatment.
In addition to the TCR-T, CAR-T mentioned in the article, cell therapies such as γδT and TIL also have unique advantages and strong potential in the field of solid tumors, and it is expected that cell therapy can make breakthroughs as soon as possible and bring effective solutions
for the treatment of diseases for patients with solid tumors.

Resources:

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Official website of each company