Wugen has dosed the first subject in a Phase I/II clinical trial of CAR-T cell therapy, WU-CART-007, to treat relapsed or refractory (R/R) T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL)/lymphoblastic lymphoma (LBL).
An off-the-shelf, fratricide-resistant CD7-targeted therapy, WU-CART-007 has been designed to address technological issues of using CAR-T cells for the treatment of CD7+ haematological malignancies.
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It is made with T-cells obtained from healthy donors to eradicate the malignant cell contamination risk seen in the autologous CAR-T setting.
WU-CART-007 is the first off-the-shelf allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy addressing T-Cell malignancies to enter clinical trials in the US.
Furthermore, the therapy obtained orphan drug designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat ALL.
The multicentre, open-label, international Phase I/II trial will assess the safety and clinical efficacy of WU-CART-007 in R/R T-ALL/LBL patients.
Phase I portion of the trial will evaluate the safety and tolerability of a single CAR-T cell therapy dose after lymphodepleting conditioning therapy.
It will also detect the recommended Phase II dose (RP2D), pharmacodynamics and cellular kinetics.
Phase II segment will evaluate WU-CART-007’s initial anti-tumour activity as assessed by duration of response and objective response rate.
Wugen president and CEO Dan Kemp said: “The dosing of the first patient in our Phase I/II trial for R/R T-ALL/LBL is a significant milestone as we continue to advance the first, off-the-shelf allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy for T-Cell malignancies in the United States into the clinic.
“We are also pleased to have received FDA Orphan Drug Designation for WU-CART-007, which further augments our efforts to deliver this therapy to patients in an area of great unmet need.”
