Takeda and MD Anderson Announce Strategic Collaboration to Advance Off-the-Shelf CAR-NK Cell Therapy for B-Cell Malignancies

Today, Takeda and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (UT MD Anderson Cancer Center) announced a research collaboration to jointly develop umbilical cord blood-derived chimeric antigen receptor natural killer (CAR-NK) cell therapy, accelerating its clinical development for the treatment of B-cell malignancies and other cancers. The press release noted that this therapy has the potential to become the first CAR cell therapy approved for outpatient treatment.

Unlike CAR-T cell therapy, which involves genetically engineering a patient’s own T cells, the CAR-NK cell therapy developed by MD Anderson Cancer Center isolates natural killer (NK) cells from umbilical cord blood and inserts chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) targeting CD19 into their cell surface, thereby enhancing their efficacy in attacking specific tumors. CD19 is a cell-surface antigen specifically expressed at all stages of B-lymphocyte differentiation. This therapy also incorporates interleukin-15 (IL-15) to enhance the in vivo proliferation and survival of CAR-NK cells.

A major drawback of CAR-T cell therapy is that it typically takes several weeks to complete the genetic engineering process, a challenge that CAR-NK cell therapy holds promise for addressing. NK cells isolated and engineered from umbilical cord blood of unrelated donors are amenable to storage for on-demand patient use, potentially offering treatment convenience for outpatients. Furthermore, while patients receiving CAR-T therapy often experience cytokine release syndrome (CRS), NK cells do not secrete the inflammatory cytokines responsible for CRS, thereby avoiding such toxicities.

Preclinical studies have demonstrated that natural killer (NK) cells derived from donated umbilical cord tissue can be engineered to eliminate certain types of leukemia and lymphoma cells. Currently, MD Anderson Cancer Center is evaluating CD19-targeted CAR-NK therapy in a Phase 1/2a clinical trial for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell malignancies.

Image source: 123RF

Under the terms of the agreement, Takeda will obtain the rights to use MD Anderson Cancer Center’s proprietary CAR-NK platform and will be responsible for the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of products arising from this collaborative research and development effort, including CAR-NK cell therapies targeting CD19 and B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA). MD Anderson Cancer Center will receive an upfront payment, potential milestone payments, and royalties on future sales of drugs developed through this collaboration.

“We aim to optimize existing therapies by developing CAR-NK cell therapies that can be used in the outpatient setting, enabling more patients to receive effective, rapid, and minimally toxic treatment,” said Dr. Katy Rezvani, Professor of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at MD Anderson Cancer Center. “Takeda is committed to developing next-generation cell therapies and possesses expertise in hematologic malignancies, which will help us advance the further development of CAR-NK cell therapies.”

“The CAR-NK platform at MD Anderson Cancer Center represents the therapeutic potential of a new generation of cell therapies,” said Dr. Andy Plump, President of Research and Development at Takeda. “We aim to accelerate our R&D efforts, with the goal of initiating pivotal studies of CD19-targeted CAR-NK therapy in 2021.”

References:

[1] Takeda and MD Anderson Announce Collaboration to Accelerate the Development of Clinical-Stage, Off-The-Shelf CAR NK-Cell Therapy Platform, Retrieved November 5, 2019, from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191105005250/en/Takeda-MD-Anderson-Announce-Collaboration-Accelerate-Development

▽Follow [WuXi AppTecDe】WeChat Official Account