Celyad Oncology reports first half year 2024 financial results and recent business highlights
September 13, 2024
- The Company continues to bolster its intellectual property estate and to pursue options to monetize it
- The Company’s two main research and development platforms have delivered proof-of-concept and are ready to be incorporated into clinical candidates and/or to be further explored and exploited via potential partnerships
- The Company actively participated at several key international scientific conferences and published in well-renowned peer-reviewed journals which have raised the interest for the Company’s technologies and developments
- Operational expenses according to Budget allowing cash runway until third quarter 2025
Michel Lussier, interim Chief Executive Officer of Celyad Oncology, commented: “Celyad Oncology continues to make remarkable progress in developing cutting-edge technologies for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. Our groundbreaking multiplex platform is revolutionizing the potential of CAR T-cells, while our pioneering NKG2D-based multispecific CAR T-cell platform is further paving the way to conquer current limitations of this transformative class of immunotherapy”
H1-2024 Business highlights
- The Company is pursuing a strategy of continued research and development, with a particular focus on intellectual property (IP). Monetization of its innovative approaches and technologies is a key objective. Celyad Oncology is progressing in this regard and is currently in discussion with potential partners for out-licensing deals;
- With its research focus, the Company has made concrete progress by providing proof-of-concept of the multiplex short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) non-gene edited technology platform and the multispecific NKG2D-based CAR T-cell platform, which provide unique options to tackle the major current limitations of CAR T-cell therapies. Options to further explore or validate these data through strategic partnerships, and/or to incorporate these technologies into clinical CAR-T candidates are actively pursued by the Company;
- The Company continues to share and discuss its latest advances at international scientific conferences throughout the first half of 2024 with updated results provided at the 27th ASGCT [1] Annual Meeting and the Recent insights into Immuno-Oncology VIB conference [2].
The Company is also focusing on sharing data and views with the scientific community and has published a review highlighting the interest of non-gene editing technologies for allogeneic CAR T-cell therapies in Cells [3] and another review providing an overview of all engineering strategies to safely drive CAR T-cells into the future in Frontiers in Immunology [4], two well-renowned peer-reviewed scientific journals;
- In response to the request expressed by several companies and academic institutions engaged in gene and cell therapies for cardiac applications, the Company has re-initiated the manufacturing and commercialization of C-Cath®, an intra-myocardial injection catheter developed and owned by the Company.
H1-2024 operational highlights
- Multiplex shRNA non-gene edited technology – The Company developed a chimeric micro-RNA (miRNA) cluster to enable multiplexing of shRNAs, designed for easy, efficient, and tunable downregulation of up to four target genes simultaneously in CAR T-cells.
-- Data successfully demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of the multiplex approach to improve allogeneic CAR T-cell viability by avoiding graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) via knocking down of CD3?, avoiding host-versus-graft (HvG) reaction and promoting cell persistence via knocking-down of ß2M and CIITA, and avoiding CD95L-induced autophagy via knocking-down of CD95;
-- Another multiplex cassette focusing on the knock-down of co-inhibitory receptors (PD-1, LAG-3, TIM-3 and CD95) was also developed to decrease the expression of exhaustion markers at the surface of CAR T-cells.
- Multispecific NKG2D-based CAR T-cell platform – Different NKG2D-based multispecific CAR T-cells were developed to provide the proof-of-concept that NKG2D ligands (NKG2DL) are valuable targets in a multispecific CAR approach to counteract relapses due to antigen loss or antigen heterogeneity.
-- PSMA/NKG2DL tandem CAR T-cells, that encompass the extracellular domain of the natural NKG2D receptor fused to an anti-PSMA CAR to overcome antigen heterogeneity and improve anti-tumor efficacy against prostate cancer were developed and demonstrated functionality in vitro against prostate cancer cell lines expressing or not the tumor-associated antigen PSMA;
-- In vivo proof-of-concept of the company’s CD19/NKG2DL tandem CAR T-cell candidate was also provided in a B-ALL relapse model, showing that this multi-specific CAR T-cell candidate has an enhanced anti-tumor efficacy against heterogeneous lymphoma tumors, or to counteract antigen loss, as compared to currently existing treatment options.