Pharmaceutical Business review

ImmunoACT and Caring Cross sign TriCAR-T cell therapy development deal

The companies will partner to develop and commercialise TriCAR-T cell immunotherapy targeting leukaemia and lymphoma. Credit: National Cancer Institute on Unsplash.

The collaboration is set to address the issue of relapse in patients undergoing treatment with conventional anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapies through the use of TriCAR-T immunotherapy.

As per the deal, Caring Cross will contribute its TriCAR-T cell immunotherapy for clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialisation utilising facilities of ImmunoACT in India.

The companies will work together to expand access to make a TriCAR-T cell therapy commercially available in India at affordable prices.

Caring Cross co-founder and executive director Boro Dropulić said: “We are pleased to form this commercial partnership with ImmunoACT, which is committed to providing affordable and accessible CAR-T cell therapies for serious diseases like leukaemia and lymphoma.

“Our global partnership model aims to improve access for CAR-T cell therapies by developing CAR-T cell manufacturing technologies and providing therapeutic candidates that are affordable in countries like India.

“We are excited to work with ImmunoACT to commercialise a dedicated proprietary TriCAR-T cell therapy in India, which we anticipate will decrease the rate of relapse seen with current single targeted anti-CD19 CAR-T cell therapies.”

ImmunoACT has a diverse portfolio of CAR-T therapeutic assets, targeting various stages of clinical development for oncological and autoimmune disorders.

A lead candidate of the company, NexCAR19 (Actalycabtagene autoleucel) recently received approval from India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) as the country’s first CAR-T cell therapy to treat relapsed/refractory B-cell lymphomas and leukaemia.