The Importance of Collaboration in Developing Next Generation Cell Therapies

“The TCR T platform continues together with 2seventy bio’s CAR T programs, and we're moving and supporting their push to bring one of the first T cell receptors in this collaboration into the clinic... We just reportedon that program ina paper in the Journal of immunotherapy of Cancer which won an award at SITC for the best paper in immune cell therapy for 2021.”

The PRAME-directed, T cell receptor-modified (TCR-T) therapy MDG1011 (Medigene) has demonstrated positive safety, tolerability, and feasibility data in patients with blood cancers in a phase 1/2 clinical trial (NCT03503968). Exploratory efficacy and biologic activity data from the trial is expected in the first quarter of 2022.

MDG1011 is being evaluated in heavily pretreated patients with acute myeloid leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome or multiple myeloma. All patients experienced adverse events (AEs), which included grade 1-2 transient cytokine release syndrome (n = 2). No immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome or dose-limiting toxicities were reported.

GeneTherapyLive spoke with Dolores Schendel, PhD, chief executive and chief scientific officer, Medigene, to learn more about the company’s collaboration with 2seventy bio (formerly bluebird bio) to develop TCR T-cell therapies. She also discussed future collaborations and research that Medigene is pursuing.

REFERENCE

Medigene achieves positive preliminary results in phase I of phase I/II trial Of TCR-T therapy MDG1011 in blood cancers. News release. Medigene. December 21, 2021. https://www.medigene.com/investors-media/press-releases/detail/medigene-achieves-positive-preliminary-results-in-phase-i-of-phase-i-ii-trial-of-tcr-t-therapy-mdg1011-in-blood-cancers-1