March Biosciences Secures $13.4M CPRIT Grant to Advance Phase 2 Trial of MB-105 CAR-T Therapy for Relapsed/Refractory CD5+ T-Cell Lymphomas

Text | Li Nana

March Biosciences is a clinical-stage biotechnology company headquartered in Texas, USA. The company is dedicated to treating challenging cancers that do not respond to existing immunotherapies.

On November 18, March Biosciences announced that it had received a notice of award for a significant competitive grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). This grant will support the ongoing clinical development of its innovative chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy for the treatment of relapsed and refractory CD5-positive T-cell cancers. The approximately $13.4 million product development award will be used to support March Bio's upcoming Phase 2 clinical trial of MB-105 for the treatment of relapsed and refractory T-cell lymphoma.

March Biosciences was founded by the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, Texas Children's Hospital) and is dedicated to treating challenging cancers that are unresponsive to current immunotherapies. The company was incubated by the CPRIT-supported Cancer Therapeutics Accelerator, with seed funding led by Texas Medical Center Venture Fund (TMC Ventures) and Portal Innovations. Its lead asset, MB-105, is a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (“CAR-T”) therapy targeting CD5, currently in Phase I trials for patients with refractory T-cell lymphoma and leukemia.

Once patients with T-cell malignancies experience a relapse or show no response to first-line therapies, the prognosis becomes very poor. Moreover, there are extremely limited options for ongoing treatments, with a survival rate of only about 15% at the three-year mark. Developing specific therapies for these indications is highly challenging because many potential targets, including the CD5 receptor targeted by MB-105, are present on both normal T cells and malignant T cells. CD5 is a protein that is broadly expressed on both normal and malignant T cells, including those associated with T-cell leukemias and lymphomas. Therapies targeting malignant T cells have the potential to damage healthy T cells, which are essential for normal immune function. This limits their utility as cancer treatment targets since the healthy T cells needed for normal immune system function would be destroyed along with the malignant T cells. MB-105 has been specifically designed to preserve healthy T cells while maintaining its ability to kill CD5-positive tumor cells.

Phase II Trial of MB-105 Expected to Begin Next Year Earlier this month, the Cancer Focus Fund announced a $4.8 million investment to support the Phase II clinical trial of MB-105. Additionally, March Biosciences has partnered with CTMC (a joint venture between MD Anderson Cancer Center and National Resilience), a recent awardee of CPRIT. In the ongoing Phase I trial conducted at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine, MB-105 has demonstrated favorable safety and encouraging early efficacy in patients with relapsed T-cell lymphoma and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The Phase II open-label, multicenter trial will evaluate the efficacy of MB-105 in patients with CD5-positive relapsed/refractory T-cell lymphoma. Patients will receive a single dose of MB-105 and be followed up for at least 12 months.

Editor | Hai Ruojing