On May 19, 2020 Xenetic Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:XBIO) ("Xenetic" or the "Company"), a biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing XCART, a personalized CAR T platform technology engineered to target patient- and tumor-specific neoantigens, reported it has entered into a research funding and option agreement ("the Agreement") with Scripps Research to advance the development of the XCART technology for B cell malignancies (Press release, Xenetic Biosciences, MAY 19, 2020, https://ir.xeneticbio.com/news/detail/92/xenetic-biosciences-inc-announces-research-and-development-collaboration-with-scripps-research-to-advance-xcarttm-platform [SID1234558271]).
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The XCART platform is a significantly differentiated, proprietary approach to personalized CAR T therapy for the treatment of multiple tumor types of B-cell Non-Hodgkin lymphomas, and was originally developed by Scripps Research in collaboration with the Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry. XCART is believed to have the potential to significantly enhance the safety and efficacy of cell therapy for B-cell lymphomas by generating patient- and tumor-specific CAR T cells.
"We are thrilled to partner with Scripps Research to aid in the development of XCART. Not only are they a leading, world renowned research and development organization, but they are also one of the original developers of the XCART platform," commented Jeffrey Eisenberg, Chief Executive Officer of Xenetic. "We believe that the team at Scripps Research, given their deep knowledge and understanding of the XCART platform, is uniquely qualified to guide key aspects of our preclinical development program. They will also provide method development expertise as the program moves towards process development for clinical manufacturing. We expect this collaboration to be one of the integral elements in our strategy of leveraging academic and development partners to provide operational efficiencies as we drive XCART toward clinical manufacturing and ultimately first-in-human studies."
The XCART technology platform was designed to utilize an established screening technique to identify polypeptide domains that selectively bind to the unique B-cell receptor ("BCR") on the surface of an individual lymphoma patient’s malignant B-cell clones. This BCR-selective targeting domain is engineered into the antigen-binding domain of a chimeric antigen receptor ("CAR"), creating the possibility of a CAR T treatment that should only recognize a given patient’s malignant B-cell clones. An expected result for XCART is limited off-tumor toxicities, such as B-cell aplasia. Xenetic’s clinical development program will seek to confirm the early preclinical results, and to demonstrate a more attractive safety profile than existing therapies.
"We are pleased to enter this agreement with Xenetic to participate in the preclinical development of the XCART platform. Our past experience with the technology will suit us well as we work closely with the Xenetic team to advance this platform for B cell malignancies," added Dr. Richard Lerner, Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Immunochemistry at Scripps Research.
Under the terms of the Scripps Research agreement, Xenetic will be granted an exclusive license to certain intellectual property arising from the research program in the field of B-cell malignancies, as well as an option to acquire rights and licenses to new intellectual property outside of that field. Xenetic is actively engaged in ongoing discussions to advance the development of XCART through additional collaborations with academic or development partners.