On November 30, 2018 Fate Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FATE), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of programmed cellular immunotherapies for cancer and immune disorders, reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed its Investigational New Drug (IND) Application for FT500, the Company’s universal, off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cell product candidate derived from a clonal master induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line (Press release, Fate Therapeutics, NOV 30, 2018, View Source [SID1234531751]). The clinical trial of FT500 is expected to be the first-ever clinical investigation in the U.S. of an iPSC-derived cell product.
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
"The clearance by the FDA of our FT500 IND is a significant milestone and marks the beginning of an exciting new era for the clinical development of cell products," said Scott Wolchko, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fate Therapeutics. "Clonal master iPSC lines are a renewable cell source that can uniquely produce cell products which are uniformly engineered and well characterized, can be mass produced in a cost-effective manner, and can be delivered off-the-shelf to treat many patients. This revolutionary paradigm overcomes significant challenges that limit both patient- and donor-derived cell therapy, where heterogeneous populations of primary cells are repeatedly sourced, engineered, expanded and characterized on a batch-by-batch basis resulting in cell therapies with substantial variability in quality, consistency and potency."
The Company plans to initiate first-in-human clinical testing of FT500 in combination with checkpoint inhibitor therapy for the treatment of advanced solid tumors. This study is expected to evaluate the safety and tolerability of multiple doses of FT500, in multiple dosing cycles with nivolumab, pembrolizumab or atezolizumab, in subjects that have progressed or failed on checkpoint inhibitor therapy.
On Monday, December 3, an oral presentation at the 60thAmerican Society of Hematology (ASH) (Free ASH Whitepaper) Annual Meeting and Exposition will feature new preclinical data demonstrating that FT500 has enhanced anti-tumor cytotoxicity and promotes T-cell activation and homing. Moreover, in an in vitro three-dimensional tumor spheroid model, FT500 in combination with activated T cells and an anti-PD1 antibody significantly enhance the elimination of target cancer cells, as compared to FT500 or activated T cells alone. Additional iPSC-derived, off-the-shelf cell product candidates from the Company’s iPSC product platform, including its first iPSC-derived chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell (FT819) and CAR NK cell (FT596) product candidates, will also be highlighted at ASH (Free ASH Whitepaper).
About Fate Therapeutics’ iPSC Product Platform
The Company’s proprietary iPSC product platform enables mass production of off-the-shelf, engineered, homogeneous cell products that can be administered in repeat doses to mediate more effective pharmacologic activity, including in combination with cycles of other cancer treatments. Human iPSCs possess the unique dual properties of unlimited self-renewal and differentiation potential into all cell types of the body. The Company’s first-of-kind approach involves engineering human iPSCs in a one-time genetic modification event, and selecting a single iPSC for maintenance as a clonal master iPSC line. Analogous to master cell lines used to manufacture biopharmaceutical drug products such as monoclonal antibodies, clonal master iPSC lines are a renewable source for manufacturing cell therapy products which are well-defined and uniform in composition, can be mass produced at significant scale in a cost-effective manner, and can be delivered off-the-shelf to treat many patients. Fate Therapeutics’ iPSC product platform is supported by an intellectual property portfolio of over 100 issued patents and 100 pending patent applications.