On June 15, 2022 WuXi Advanced Therapies (WuXi ATU), a global Contract Testing, Development and Manufacturing Organization (CTDMO), and Wugen Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company based in St. Louis and San Diego, reported a partnership to produce Wugen’s WU-NK-101, a novel immunotherapy that harnesses the power of memory natural killer (NK) cells to treat cancers (Press release, WuXi ATU, JUN 15, 2022, View Source [SID1234616019]). WuXi ATU will provide manufacturing and testing services for WU-NK-101 to enable the delivery of this innovative cell therapy product to cancer patients.
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Wugen aims to develop a pipeline of off-the-shelf cell therapy products to treat a broad range of hematological and solid tumor malignancies. As Wugen’s first program from the company’s proprietary MonetaTM platform, WU-NK-101 leverages the hyper-functional, long-lasting anti-tumor functionality of memory NK cells to manufacture next-generation, off-the-shelf cancer cell therapies at commercial scale. WU-NK-101 is currently in development to treat acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and solid tumors.
WuXi ATU’s integrated CTDMO platform enables the development of WU-NK-101 by leveraging the company’s Good Manufacturing Process (GMP) cell therapy manufacturing and testing capabilities to support regulatory filings and clinical trials.
"We are delighted to partner with WuXi ATU," said Dr. Dan Kemp, President and Chief Executive Officer of Wugen. "With WuXi ATU’s cell therapy manufacturing expertise, integrated GMP manufacturing and testing capabilities, we can keep advancing our allogeneic WU-NK-101 program into clinical trials and accelerate the timeline for delivering convenient, effective therapeutics to patients."
"The development of allogeneic NK cell therapies is a significant step towards accelerating the progress of these innovative cancer therapeutics into the clinical pipeline," said Dr. David Chang, Chief Executive Officer of WuXi ATU. "We’re delighted to partner with Wugen to help make these life-saving cancer treatments less challenging to produce and more accessible to patients in need."
About WU-NK-101
WU-NK-101 is a novel immunotherapy harnessing the power of memory natural killer (NK) cells to treat liquid and solid tumors. Memory NK cells are hyper-functional, long-lasting immune cells that exhibit enhanced anti-tumor activity and a cytokine-induced memory-like (CIML) phenotype. This rare cell population has a superior phenotype, proliferation capacity, and metabolic fitness that makes it better suited for cancer therapy than other NK cell therapies. Wugen is applying its proprietary MonetaTM platform to advance WU-NK-101 as a commercially scalable, off-the-shelf cell therapy for cancer. WU-NK-101 is currently in development for acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and solid tumors.