Avalon GloboCare strikes three-way material transfer agreement with Weill Cornell Medicine and Arbele Limited

Avalon GloboCare Corp (NASDAQ:AVCO), a clinical-stage developer of cell-based technologies and therapeutics, announced Thursday that it has struck a three-way material transfer agreement (MTA) with Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City and the company’s strategic partner, Arbele Limited. With this agreement, Avalon GloboCare and Arbele Limited intend to collaborate with Weill Cornell Medicine and co-develop the standardized laboratory steps necessary to generate clinical-grade CAR-T and CAR-natural killer (NK) cells for use in future human clinical trials with Avalon’s first FLASH-CAR platform candidate, AVA-011. Similar to T-cells, NK cells are a type of white blood cell, also able to attack cancer cells, but utilize different mechanisms. The company said this process development step will provide “the bridge” between Avalon’s “benchtop research” and the “bio-manufacturing processes” to potentially deliver the clinical-grade cellular immunotherapy product to patients. READ: Avalon GloboCare advancing immune cell therapy to treat blood cancers using FLASH-CAR technology “We are excited about this agreement to translate our cellular therapy candidates into standardized, clinical-grade cell products that could be used in future clinical trials,” Avalon GloboCare CEO David Jin said in a statement. “This step reflects our dedication to establishing an infrastructure to develop our cellular immunotherapy candidates and to maintain the highest possible standards for generating clinical-grade cells for human cancer trials,” he added. AVA-011 is a next generation cellular immunotherapy candidate using Avalon’s FLASH-CAR technology that targets both CD19 and CD22 tumor antigens on cancer cells. Avalon has already successfully completed pre-clinical research on AVA-011, including tumor cytotoxicity studies. Avalon expects to begin a first-in-human clinical trial with AVA-011 for the treatment of relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the first quarter of 2021. The goal is to use AVA-011 as a bridge to bone marrow stem cell transplant therapy, currently the only curative approach for patients with these blood cancers. Avalon’s next generation immune cell therapy using FLASH-CAR technology is being co-developed with the company’s strategic partner Arbele Limited. The adaptable FLASH-CAR platform can be used to create personalized cell therapy from a patient’s own cells, as well as off-the-shelf cell therapy from a universal donor, expanding the reach of cancer patients that can be treated. Avalon, based in Freehold, New Jersey, specializes in developing cell-based technologies and is involved in the management of stem-cell banks and clinical laboratories. Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive