February 21, 2023
T Celll Nouveau Inc.
Announcement of a license agreement for
novel CAR-T cell therapy targeting PRAME cancer antigen.
T Cell Nouveau Inc. (Headquartered in Tokyo and represented by CEO, Kiyoshi Inoguchi, hereinafter "the Company") concluded a license agreement with Mie University (Headquartered in Tsu, Mie and represented by President Masaaki Ito, hereinafter "Mie University") for the patents mentioned in the above license.
While the CAR-T cell therapy, represented by Kymriah® (approved in Japan in 2019), has shown breakthrough efficacy in the treatment of refractory leukemia and malignant lymphoma, this kind of approach faces challenges to achieve comparable efficacy for myeloid leukemia and solid tumors.
With aspirations to treat solid tumors the Company has joined efforts with Mie University Graduate School of Medicine, Department of Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy and Center for Comprehensive Cancer Immunotherapy, to engage in research and development of novel "TCR-like Hybrid CAR-T cell therapy”.
The parties signed a license agreement for Hybrid CAR-T cells targeting PRAME which is known to be one of the cancer-testis family of antigens. The Company will accelerate the practical application of Hybrid CAR-T cells and contribute to the development and spread of regenerative medicine.
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About PRAME
PRAME is a "marker" protein that is overexpressed only in cancer tissues, and is rarely expressed in normal tissues besides the testis. PRAME has been confirmed to be expressed in many cancers such as acute myeloid leukemia and lung cancer.
About TCR-like Hybrid CAR-T
Conventionally, tumor-specific T cells, which play a central role in immune function against cancer, are known to recognize cancer cells by their T Cell Receptor (TCR) and destroy them.
Moving forward, the Company’s joint research partner Mie University Graduate School of Medicine, Department of Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy (https://shikuken.jp), has discovered an antibody that can recognize PRAME just as TCR is doing and has engineered new Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cells with it. A phase 1 clinical trial of another MAGE-A4 TCR-like CAR-T in Japan is currently underway (Trial ID: jRCT2043210077).