On August 16, 2021 Calidi Biotherapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company with novel allogeneic stem cell platforms for delivery of oncolytic viruses, together with the University of Chicago and City of Hope, a world renowned NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, based in Duarte, California, reported that it have entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement for patents covering cutting edge therapies using an oncolytic adenovirus in combination with a clinical grade allogeneic neural stem cell line (Press release, Calidi Biotherapeutics, AUG 16, 2021, View Source [SID1234586651]).
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City of Hope (COH) scientists, led by Dr. Karen Aboody in collaboration with Dr. Maciej Lesniak’s team at University of Chicago, and later Northwestern University, have used COH’s exclusive GMP grade immortalized, clonal human neural stem cell line, to selectively deliver an oncolytic adenovirus to tumor sites. Dr. Aboody and Dr. Lesniak, together with Dr. Rachael Mooney at COH, have spent 13 years in a passionate effort to translate promising pre-clinical results into the clinic, attaining FDA approval for commencing a first-in-human Phase-1 trial in recurrent glioma patients.
"We are very excited about the partnership and collaboration with Calidi Biotherapeutics. Their deep understanding and expertise using allogeneic stem cells as a delivery platform to protect, deliver, amplify, and potentiate oncolytic virotherapy, can potentially result in a significantly more effective treatment for cancer patients with invasive tumors," commented Dr. Karen Aboody, Professor, Department of Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, City of Hope National Medical Center & Beckman Research Institute.
"The first wave of Oncolytic Viruses were novel, but lacked the ability to efficiently deliver the virus to tumor sites, due to the human complement immune system inactivating the viruses, usually within one hour of patient injection, thus resulting in a lack of efficacy," stated Allan Camaisa, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Calidi Biotherapeutics. "We believe this collaboration with City of Hope will allow us to implement Calidi’s proprietary techniques together with City of Hope’s novel approach to glioblastoma and other malignant tumors, using neural stem cells combined with an oncolytic adenovirus. This FDA approved Investigational New Drug (IND), planned for patient trials in the first quarter of 2022, increases Calidi’s drug pipeline and gives our company a tumor-tropic stem cell line to use for oncolytic virus delivery in cancer patients."
This exclusive license agreement, which was executed by the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepeneurship and Innovation, transferred the COH/University of Chicago IND to Calidi for the commercial development of a licensed product. The agreement grants to Calidi commercial exclusivity in using neural stem cells with the adenovirus known as CRAd-pk-S-7 for oncolytic virotherapy.
"Calidi’s scientific and medical teams are very excited to contribute in the development of this promising technology that has significant potential to help many patients with advanced tumors," said Boris Minev, MD, President, Medical and Scientific Affairs at Calidi Biotherapeutics. "We are delighted to collaborate with the outstanding researchers and clinicians who developed this novel oncolytic virotherapy approach."