EXUMA Biotech"™s VP of Oncology R&D, Dr. Sid Kerkar, Reveals Preclinical Data From Its Subcutaneous CAR-TaNK And In Vivo CAR Cell And Gene Therapy Programs
EXUMA Biotech, Corp., is a clinical-stage biotechnology company discovering and developing cell and gene therapies for liquid and solid tumors.
EXUMA is currently conducting IND-enabling studies of the first products on its CAR-TaNK cell therapy platform, targeting CD19 and CD22. CAR-TaNKs are potent cancer killers with T and NK features, which preclinically have been observed to reproducibly and robustly expand in vivo in lymphoreplete animal models following the generation of synthetic lymph nodes post subcutaneous injection. Based on the absence of a lymphodepleting preparatory regimen, and favorable preclinical CAR-TaNK blood cytokine profile, EXUMA plans to pursue development of its CD19 and CD22 cell therapies for use in the community oncology setting. EXUMA recently wrapped a pre-IND meeting with the FDA and hopes to start a first in human clinical trial in early 2023. If everything goes as planned, EXUMA hopes to be the first to enter the clinic with a subcutaneous CAR cell therapy.
EXUMA is also working on an in vivo engineered CAR gene therapy program, (GCAR), which has shown pre-clinically robust B cell aplasia results obtained by directly injecting a CD3-targeting lentiviral vector (GCAR) into two different lymphoreplete humanized animal models. Further pre-clinical studies are ongoing to characterize the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic effects of EXUMA"™s GCAR gene therapy.