On October 18, 2022 Eureka Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel T cell therapies to treat cancer, reported it has entered into a license agreement with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, for a glypican 2 (GPC2) binding domain to be used for the potential development and commercialization of ARTEMIS T cell therapies for patients with neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that affects the developing nervous system (Press release, Eureka Therapeutics, OCT 18, 2022, View Source [SID1234622148]). The therapy also has expansion potential in medulloblastoma and small cell lung cancer, among several other pediatric and adult cancers that express an abundance of the GPC2 protein on their cell surface.

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Neuroblastoma is a rare cancer that affects the development of the nervous system by attacking immature nerve cells as early as the embryonic stage. Each year, about 800 children are diagnosed with neuroblastoma in the U.S., and overall survival rates are lower than 50%. Current chemotherapy options for these patients are limited and highly toxic, which highlights the urgent need for new treatments for this disease to improve overall survival and reduce long-term toxicity.

"GPC2 is an exciting new target for neuroblastoma. In pre-clinical models, anti-GPC2 directed ARTEMIS T cells demonstrated significant tumor-killing activity," said Dr. Mitchell Ho, Deputy Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Director of the Antibody Engineering Program at the NCI Center for Cancer Research. "We believe it is beneficial to further evaluate anti-GPC2 directed ARTEMIS T cells as a potential T cell therapy for patients with neuroblastoma and other cancers that express GPC2."

"The expansion of our pipeline with an anti-GPC2 program supports our effort to deliver the potential benefit of ARTEMIS T cell therapies for patients with neuroblastoma. As the field of T cell therapy continues its rapid advancement, we remain committed to pioneering the next generation of T cell therapies." said Dr. Cheng Liu, President and Chief Executive Officer of Eureka Therapeutics.