Wugen’s T-cell fundraiser
Wugen has raised $115m of venture capital funding to push its pivotal phase 2 trial evaluating WU-CART-007, now given the INN soficabtagene geleucel, an off-the-shelf allogeneic Car-T therapy targeting CD7. The T-Rrex study, which began in March, is testing this potential first-in-class therapy in paediatric and adult patients with relapsed and refractory T-cell lymphomas. Early phase 1/2 data presented at ASH showed a 91% ORR in the same population. Car-T therapies have transformed treatment for B-cell malignancies, but tackling T-cell cancers has been tougher. One of the main issues has been that Car-Ts engineered to recognise T-cell antigens can attack themselves, because the antigen is also expressed on the Car-T cells. Wugen has addressed this by editing the donor cells with Crispr/Cas9 systems to knock out CD7, a similar approach to strategies being pursued by other companies in the field, such as Beam Therapeutics. The pivotal trial aims to establish WU-CART-007 as the first off-the-shelf Car-T for this indication. If this is successful, Wugen expects to submit a US filing in 2027.
Allogeneic CD7 Car-Ts in the clinic
| Project | Company | Status | Cell -editing |
|---|---|---|---|
| WU-CART-007 | Wugen | Pivotal phase 2 in r/r T-ALL/LBL | Deletion of CD7 and TRAC* using Crispr/Cas9 |
| BEAM-201 | Beam Therapeutics | Phase 1/2 in T-ALL | Base editing of TRAC*, CD52, PD-1 and CD7 using a Crispr protein |
| CTD401/ CTD402 | Bioheng Biotech | Phase 1 in r/r T-ALL/LBL | T- cell receptor, CD7, and HLA class II knockout using Crispr/Cas9 |
Note: *TRAC=T-cell receptor alpha chain. Source: OncologyPipeline.
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