Biotech Strategy Blog

Commentary on Science, Innovation & New Products with a focus on Oncology, Hematology & Cancer Immunotherapy

Posts from the ‘CAR-T’ category

Shooting for the stars with next generation cell therapies

Sitges, Spain

Sitges – It’s time to explore new opportunities for cell therapy at the second edition of the European CAR T cell meeting, jointly organized by the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) and European Hematology Association (EHA) kicked off today in Sitges, just south of Barcelona.

With over 1,000 attendees, there’s a lot of interest in the cell therapy field and registrations for the meeting sold out quickly.

That’s not surprising given the impressive line-up of the good and great in the field of cell therapy including Stan Riddell, Carl June, Crystal Mackall, Michel Sadelain, and many others.

There’s also a raft of presentations on the challenges and opportunities for cell therapy, along with presentations of new and emerging approaches in the posters.

In this post you’ll find our reactions and commentary on some of the key messages and insights that emerged and takeaways from the first day at the CAR-T meeting.

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Eyes on CAR-T Cell Therapy in Europe – Future Directions

One of the delights of going to a major medical/scientific meeting such as the recent European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Barcelona is that there often meetings going on around it, which offer unique and novel perspectives.

For example, on the Thursday before ESMO19 there was a one-day workshop on “Breaking through emergent immunotherapy and immune targets in cancer.”

Dr Manel Juan Otero presenting at the FLS Science symposium

Organized by FLS Science, it took place at the Casa de Convalescència in Barcelona. The program featured a mix of Spanish immunologists and clinicians, along with some leading US researchers including Dr Tom Gajweski (Chicago) and Dr Antoni Ribas (UCLA).

It was definitely well worth attending and I encourage you to look out to see if the organizers run the again meeting before ESMO20 in Madrid next year.

One of the most interesting speakers at the meeting was Dr Manel Juan Otero (right) who heads up the section of immunotherapy at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona.

In his talk, he spoke about the “Future Directions for CAR-T Therapy” in Spain, which turned out to be a dramatic one with unexpectedly broad European implications.

During a lunch break at the meeting, Dr Juan Otero kindly spoke to BSB about his plans, which could have an impact on commercial CAR T cell therapy companies such as Novartis and Gilead.

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Armored CAR-T cell therapies and commercial threats from the East

This is an extended update that I’ve been planning to write for some time, however, there was always some shiny new clinical data to highlight and discuss so it sadly stayed on the backburner!

Is the sun rising on CAR-T cell threats from the East?

Over the next few weeks, we will post some meaty reviews on various topics pertinent to cancer research R&D. They might involve a particular tumour type that is seeing extensive developments, an important or difficult target, or even a particular category approach, for example.

In the first of this new mini-series, we take a look at the CAR-T cell therapy niche and highlight some important new developments that are well worth watching out for.

Things are a-changin’ very rapidly here, including numerous R&D threats from the east (China) so it’s a good opportunity to take stock and look forward.

Here we go – hold on to your hats…

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Development of Next Generation CAR T cell therapies

Now that at two CAR T cell therapies have been approved by the FDA in two indications, what does the future hold for new developments in both hematologic malignancies and solid tumours?

It was astonishing to explore the poster halls at AACR last month and see just how many new players and targets are emerging left, right and centre.

Last week we highlighted an up and coming new player on the scene, Mustang Bio, but what about the original pioneers in this niche and what are they up to these days?

To answer this question, we tracked down Dr Renier Brentjens at Memorial Sloan Kettering while in Chicago to learn more about his latest work and where he sees the future of CAR T cell therapy heading. It makes for a very interesting, and at times, surprising read…

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An up and coming new player in CAR T cell therapy

At the recent AACR meeting in Chicago one thing that was a surprise was how many new players seem to be emrging in the CAR-T cell space, not to mention the plethora of targets being evaluated preclinically in both hematologic malignancies and solid tumours.

The CAR-T cell niche is becoming very competitive and gritty

If we thought the market was becoming competitive before with less than a dozen players, imagine how crowded it will get once many of the unknowns start to make their mark?

This situation also presents many challenges and opportunities for the new entrants, not just in terms of merely identifying new targets and preclinical research, but also in the need for quality control and manufacturing expertise plus clinical development.

We should also remember that immunotherapy is designed not to target the tumour per se but unleashes the immune system on the tumour. This means that lessons from one approach (e.g. checkpoint therapy) can be applied to another (e.g. CAR-T cell therapy) and vice versa.

Yesterday, we discussed CD123 from the perspective of a bispecific company, what about approaching the target with a CAR-T cell therapy? What other alternative targets are out that that may be useful to investigate in the clinic?

We decided to explore these issues through the lens of one of the up and coming players in the CAR-T cell niche and find out more about what they are doing, how they see things evolving in this dynamic environment and what their path to market strategy is…

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Are fast or slow CARs better for the future?

Salt Lake City, Utah – The CAR T cell therapy niche has certainly provided plenty of controversy, highlights and lowlights over the last decade or so, although much of the mainstream attention has really only surfaced in the last couple of years.

Gone skiing?

For those interested in this space, there is a short synopsis of the BMT Tandem 2018 plenary session that took place this weekend and simultaneously published in the ASBMT journal (See: Perales et al., 2018):

“Building a Safer and Faster CAR: Seatbelts, Airbags, and CRISPR” 

While no one doubts that we have a need for safer CARs to reduce or ameliorate severe toxicities (the debate here is what are the best ways to achieve that in the clinic), it remains unclear whether a fast or slow approach is the optimal way forward in terms of efficacy.

In this post, we take a look at new clinical and scientific findings that may pave the way forward for the future in the CAR T cell space through the lens of several different academic institutions…

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Future of CAR T Cell Therapy for Leukemia and Lymphoma

Salt Lake City – at the 2018 BMT Tandem meeting (Twitter: #BMTTandem18) the combined annual meeting of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT) and Center for International Blood & Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), one of the presentations of note today was a 7am breakfast symposium entitled:

“Realizing the Promise of CAR T cell Therapy for Leukemia and Lymphoma: Implications for Long-term Care in the Era of Stem Cell Transplantation.”

Cancer cells in culture Source: Dr Cecil Fox, National Cancer Institute

This educational session supported by grants from Kite/Gilead and Novartis, featured two BMT transplant experts with hands-on experience of CAR T cell trials: Dr Stephan Grupp (@GruppSteve) from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Dr Krishna Komanduri (@drkomanduri) from the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.

We’ve previously interviewed both Dr Grupp and Dr Komanduri on BSB, so were keen to hear how leading transplanters view the CAR T landscape now that two therapies have been approved by the FDA, and how they think this approach will integrate with transplants, and which patients will benefit most from this therapy.

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Bad news for Bellicum and BPX-501

Bellicum have just announced that the FDA placed a clinical hold on BPX–501 clinical trials in the United States following three cases of encephalopathy “deemed as possibly related to” treatment with their new product in development, BPX–501.

The FDA clinical hold does not affect the ongoing BP–004 registration trial in Europe.

Here we take a look at some of the issues underlying the unfortunate news.

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How Obsidian could revolutionise CAR T cell therapy in solid tumours

Dr Michael Gilman, Obsidian

To get started in the New Year, we decided to roll out a new mini series on small cap and private biotechs, as seen through the lens of their dynamic CEOs.

This will run throughout January, with plenty of different products and perspectives to consider.

The honour for the very first CEO to be in the hot seat in 2018 went to Dr Nancy Simonian of Syros earlier this week during JPM18, who talks about their small molecule program and why they are excited about 2018.

When we first talked to Syros, they were a privately held start-up, now they’re listed on Nasdaq.

We now move on to the second one in the series, with a look at a new start-up called Obsidian Therapeutics in an interview with Dr Michael Gilman (right).

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ASH17 CAR T cell therapy Preview

For the last couple of years at every annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) conference, I have posted an extensive Preview of the CAR T cell therapy landscape and looked at which abstracts piqued my interest.

The roaring 30s CAR

This year the review is the most extensive to date, with more companies, more research groups, more tumour types and way more preclinical research coming through. It’s like a kaleidoscope of ideas cascading through R&D.

The other thing to take note is how fast the field is moving – it’s warp speed now and so much comes through the literature every month on top of that.

So here we go – hold onto your hats as there is a LOT to contemplate this year!

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