Bellicum Pharmaceuticals Announces GoCAR-T & GoTCR Preclinical Presentations at the American Society of Hematology 2016 Annua...
December 05 2016 - 1:00PM
Business Wire
Results demonstrate unique control of cell
proliferation and persistence may improve outcomes in solid
tumors
Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLCM), a clinical
stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and
developing novel cellular immunotherapies for cancers and orphan
inherited blood disorders, today announced the presentation of
preclinical results on the Company’s GoCAR-T and GoTCR technologies
at the 58th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting in San
Diego, California.
“We are pleased to report further supportive preclinical data on
the utility of our proprietary iMC activation switch, which is
incorporated into our BPX-601 GoCAR-T product candidate now
entering a Phase 1 clinical study,” commented Tom Farrell,
President and CEO of Bellicum Pharmaceuticals. “We believe our
novel technology provides a powerful and unique solution for
overcoming the efficacy and safety challenges of T-cell therapies,
especially when targeting solid tumors.”
The Company’s GoCAR-T platform incorporates an inducible
MyD88/CD40 (iMC) costimulatory switch, which requires presence of
both a target antigen and rimiducid to trigger the full effect of
CAR T cell activity. The presence of rimiducid and antigen results
in upregulation of cytokines such as IL2, leading to T-cell
proliferation, persistence and improved anti-tumor efficacy. Unlike
traditional CAR T constructs, GoCAR-T is designed to support
persistence of CAR T cells in the body in the absence of cancer
antigen to provide continued anti-tumor surveillance.
In a poster presentation titled, “Inducible MyD88/CD40 (iMC)
Costimulation Provides Ligand-Dependent Tumor Eradication By
CD123-Specific Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells,” Bellicum
scientists targeted CD123, which is highly expressed in acute
myeloid leukemia (AML) and leukemic stem cells. Results
demonstrated that GoCAR-T removed CD123-positive leukemic cells in
animal models through rimiducid-activated costimulation.
Conversely, infrequent costimulation with rimiducid led to reduced
activity of CAR T cells, supporting the technology’s potential to
provide control over the activation, expansion and persistence of
cells to achieve a desired level of safety and anti-tumor
potency.
Additional data were presented on the Company’s GoTCR
technology, which also uses an iMC costimulatory switch. The
presence of GoTCR and rimiducid triggers the release of cytokines
that upregulate MHC (major histocompatibility complex) on tumor
cells, exposing them to potent immune response by both engineered
and endogenous T cells. In the study outlined in a poster
presentation titled, “Inducible MyD88/CD40 (iMC) Enhances
Proliferation and Survival of Tumor-Specific TCR-Modified T Cells
and Improves Anti-Tumor Efficacy in Myeloma,” T cells were
engineered to express tumor antigen-specific T-cell receptors
(TCRs) targeting preferentially-expressed antigen in melanoma
(PRAME) or Bob1. PRAME is overexpressed in a wide variety of
cancers including melanoma, sarcoma and several types of leukemias.
Bob1 is also found to be highly expressed in certain leukemias,
along with lymphomas and myelomas. Results demonstrated that the
rimiducid-driven iMC costimulatory switch provided potent T-cell
activation, proliferation and persistence, synergizing with signals
from PRAME- or Bob1-targeted TCRs for improved anti-tumor efficacy
in vitro and in vivo.
About Bellicum Pharmaceuticals
Bellicum is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused
on discovering and developing cellular immunotherapies for cancers
and orphan inherited blood disorders. Bellicum is using its
proprietary Chemical Induction of Dimerization (CID) technology
platform to engineer and control components of the immune system.
Bellicum is developing next-generation product candidates in some
of the most important areas of cellular immunotherapy, including
hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), and CAR T and TCR
cell therapies. More information can be found at
www.bellicum.com.
Forward-Looking Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements for
purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Bellicum may, in some cases, use
terms such as "predicts," "believes," "potential," "proposed,"
"continue," “designed,” "estimates," "anticipates," "expects,"
"plans," "intends," "may," "could," "might," "will," "should" or
other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to
identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking
statements include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs,
projections, outlook, analyses or current expectations concerning,
among other things: our research and development activities
relating to, rimiducid, CAR-T, GoCAR-T, TCR and GoTCR programs; the
effectiveness of BPX-601, its possible range of application and
potential curative effects and safety in the treatment of diseases
including as compared to other treatment options and competitive
therapies; the timing and success of our clinical trials, including
the rate and progress of enrollment in our clinical trials; and,
the timing of regulatory filings for BPX-601 and for rimiducid.
Various factors may cause differences between Bellicum’s
expectations and actual results as discussed in greater detail
under the heading “Risk Factors” in Bellicum’s filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including without limitation
our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,
2015. Any forward-looking statements that Bellicum makes in this
press release speak only as of the date of this press release.
Bellicum assumes no obligation to update our forward-looking
statements whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise, after the date of this press release.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161205005911/en/
Investors:Bellicum PharmaceuticalsAlan Musso,
CFO832-384-1116amusso@bellicum.comorMedia:BMC
CommunicationsBrad Miles,
917-570-7340bmiles@bmccommunications.comorBMC CommunicationsAmy
Bonanno, 914-450-0349abonanno@bmccommunications.com
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