On October 17, 2024 Poseida Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: PSTX), a clinical-stage allogeneic cell therapy and genetic medicines company advancing differentiated non-viral treatments for patients with cancer, autoimmune, and rare diseases, reported the nomination of a new development candidate under its collaboration with Roche (Press release, Poseida Therapeutics, OCT 17, 2024, View Source [SID1234647253]). The nomination triggered a $15 million milestone payment from Roche to Poseida.
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The new candidate is an allogeneic, dual CAR-T therapy targeting known antigens expressed in hematologic malignancies, including multiple myeloma. The large capacity of Poseida’s non-viral transposon-based DNA delivery system enables the insertion of genes for two full length chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) into T stem cell memory cells (TSCM).
"The nomination of a new development candidate builds on our collaboration with Roche and highlights the unique potential of our proprietary non-viral genetic engineering toolkit to create differentiated, TSCM-rich allogeneic CAR-T therapies targeting one or more antigens," said Kristin Yarema, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Poseida Therapeutics. "Multiple myeloma is a common and incurable blood cancer with significant room for potent, safe and accessible novel agents to expand use across lines of therapy and sites of care. With compelling preclinical data supporting the target combination of this dual CAR-T, we look forward to advancing this program towards the clinic as a part of the collaboration. We also look forward to providing updates on our CAR-T programs and earlier-stage pipeline at Poseida’s upcoming Cell Therapy R&D Day."
Poseida and Roche now have three programs under their collaboration, which was established in August 2022 to develop allogeneic CAR-T therapies directed to hematologic malignancies. The lead collaboration program, P-BCMA-ALLO1, is an allogeneic CAR-T therapy targeting BCMA that has received Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation for adult patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma after three or more prior lines of therapies. Poseida is currently enrolling patients in a Phase 1b portion of the clinical trial. The second program, P-CD19CD20-ALLO1, is an allogeneic dual CAR-T candidate in Phase 1 development for B-cell malignancies.
Dr. Yarema added, "Based on P-BCMA-ALLO1’s promising differentiated safety and efficacy results established with the recent interim Phase 1 data presented at the IMS Annual Meeting in September and in collaboration with Roche, we look forward to continued patient enrollment in the Phase 1b trial. The new allogeneic dual CAR-T therapy candidate announced today will leverage the same proprietary Poseida GMP manufacturing platform that was used to create and advance P-BCMA-ALLO1."
Poseida Cell Therapy R&D Day
The Company plans to host its Cell Therapy R&D Day on November 14th, 2024, featuring presentations from management and top scientists. The event will highlight the Company’s progress across its clinical-stage and earlier-stage pipeline of differentiated allogeneic CAR-T therapies in oncology and autoimmune disease.
The virtual event and access to the live webcast will be available through the following registration link: View Source Registration for this virtual event and access to a replay of the live webcast will also be available on the Investors & Media section of www.poseida.com. A replay of the webcast will be available for approximately 90 days following the presentation.
Cash Position
As of June 30, 2024, the Company’s cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments balance was $237.8 million. With the $15 million milestone from Roche’s nomination of a new development candidate, the Company expects that its cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments together with other remaining near-term milestones and other payments from Roche will be sufficient to fund operations into early 2026. Potential additional anticipated progress and payments under the Roche Collaboration Agreement and/or potential additional business development could further extend the cash runway.