Imugene believes it has found “the holy grail of cancer therapy”

Imugene Ltd (ASX:IMU) (OTCMKTS:IUGNF) has high hopes its' new ‘onCARlytics’ treatment could eradicate solid cancerous tumours, something not currently possible. As reported by Proactive recently, Imugene has entered into a licensing agreement with the renowned Los Angeles-based City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Centre for patents covering a novel combination immunotherapy. The deal will see the two explore a new therapy - a combination of Imugene’s cancer-killing virus CF33 with CAR T cell therapy. “Holy grail” City of Hope Assistant Professor Dr Saul Priceman said the new therapy, called onCARlytics, had the potential to revolutionise cancer treatment. “Targeting cancer cells with immune cells has been the holy grail of cancer therapy, as it has the potential to potently and durably eradicate cancer cells, and spark an immune response that allows the same T cells, plus the patient’s own immune system, to continue to target their cancer as a living and evolving drug,” he said. “It opens up tremendous opportunities to expand the utility of cancer-killing viruses in general, and in applying CAR T cell therapy to more than just blood cancers. “It represents a paradigm shift in the way we treat cancer. With CF33-CD19, we believe we can turn any intractable tumour type into one that can be potently targeted and eradicated by the combination of CF33-CD19 and CAR T-cell therapy.” onCARlytics explained Described as “remarkable” by Imugene’s CEO Leslie Chong, onCARlytics is a new CD19-expressing oncolytic virus, invented by Dr Yuman Fong and Dr Princeman at City of Hope. It pairs Imugene’s flagship CF33 oncolytic virus product, which infects and kills cancer cells, with chimeric antigen receptor t-cell therapy (CAR T therapy), which has been found to be effective in treating blood cancers such as leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Blood cancers express a protein signature called CD19, and following work conducted by scientists at City of Hope, onCARlytics will express CD19 on the cell surface of a tumour cell, which can then be targeted by CAR T-cell therapy. onCARlytics already has compelling pre-clinical activity showing its worth, with it eradicating solid tumours in animals. Phase I onCARlytics studies are set to commence in 2022. Could this change future of cancer treatment? Imugene and the scientists at City of Hope certainly hope so. “What makes CF33 unique is its ability to hold the gene for the CD19 protein, allowing the virus to identify and target cancer cells throughout the body and force the expression of CD19 on the cell surface, so that CAR T-cell therapy can then attack and destroy the cancer cells,” said City of Hope surgery department chair Dr Fong. “Theoretically onCARlytics can target any cancer including brain, breast, ovarian, lung and colon cancers for eradication by clinically available CAR T therapy. “This makes many common solid tumour cancers targetable both by an oncolytic virus and by CAR T, two of the most highly anticipated and promising immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.” Imugene chairman Paul Hopper described it as a breakthrough. “We have taken on a task that has to date been unanswered in the field of cancer research,” he said. “We are targeting, and are on the path to finding, a way to fight cancer at the tumour level. We have the chance to make medical history.” Confidence confirmed In a sign of her confidence in onCARlytics and the company’s strategy, Chong has increased her shareholding in Imugene by exercising options. The company confirmed today that she had exercised her remaining 13.8 million options at a value of $623,000. Hopper said: “On behalf of the board, I wish to express our thanks to Leslie for her confidence and significant personal investment in the company.” Imugene intends to use the additional funds to further its research and development activities. Shares higher Investors have also reflected strong recent newsflow and the company’s progress with shares in the company rising from A$0.11 on March 25 to a new record of A$0.495 earlier this week. Today shares have been as much as 10.6% higher to A$0.47. The market cap also reflects the growth as it now stands at approximately A$2.073 billion. - Daniel Paproth