Elicera Therapeutics receives 2.5 million Euros in EU funding to fully finance a clinical phase I/II-trial with its CAR T-cell therapy, ELC-301
Gothenburg, June 2, 2022 - Elicera Therapeutics AB (publ) (“Elicera”), a clinical stage cell and gene therapy company developing next generation immuno-oncological treatments based on enhanced oncolytic viruses and CAR T-cells, today announced that it has been awarded 2.5 million Euros in funding from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator Programme. The grant is sufficient to fully fund Elicera’s planned clinical phase I/II-study evaluating its CAR T-cell therapy ELC-301 in the treatment of B-cell lymphoma.
“This grant has major positive implications for the development of our CAR T-cell therapy, ELC-301. We have secured around 40 million SEK in total grants for the ELC-301 programme, which according to our estimations means that the upcoming clinical phase I/II-study is now fully funded”, said Jamal El-Mosleh, CEO of Elicera.
“I am very pleased and proud that Elicera was awarded this important EU grant in the face of fierce competition. It is a strong testament to the ground-breaking innovation of our iTANK-enforced CAR T-cell therapies and strengthens the credibility in our development plan for ELC-301”, said Magnus Essand, CSO of Elicera.
Despite relatively high response rates of market-approved CAR T-cell therapies targeting the CD19 protein, there remains a high unmet medical need for these patients. The majority of patients treated with CD19 CAR T-cell therapies are either resistant to treatment or relapse within 12 months and have then often lost the CD19 target antigen on the recurring tumors.
Elicera’s drug candidate, ELC-301, constitutes a fourth generation CAR T-cell therapy that targets the CD20 protein which, like CD19, is expressed on all B-cell lymphoma cells. ELC-301 is armed with Elicera’s iTANK-technology platform to elicit a dual mode-of-action and a broad attack on cancer by also activating the patients’ own killer T-cells against the whole set of relevant antigen targets on tumor cells, not only CD19 or CD20.
The EIC Accelerator award supports individual Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), in particular start-ups and spinout companies to develop and scaleup game-changing innovations in the EU. Competition is ferocious and less than 5% of all EIC applications are awarded.
This constitutes information that Elicera Therapeutics AB is required to publish under the EU’s Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication through the below contact person on June 2, 2022 08:30 CET.
For further information please contact:
Jamal El-Mosleh, CEO, Elicera Therapeutics AB
Phone: +46 (0) 703 31 90 51
jamal.elmosleh@elicera.com
About the iTANK platform
The iTANK- (immunoTherapies Activated with NAP for efficient Killing) technology platform has been developed for arming and enhancing CAR T-cells in order to meet two of the major challenges CAR T-cell therapies face in the treatment of solid tumors: tumor antigen heterogeneity and a hostile tumor microenvironment. The technology is used to incorporate a transgene into CAR T-cells encoding a neutrophil activating protein (NAP) from the bacterium Helicobacter pylori. NAP secreted from the CAR(NAP) T-cells has been shown to be able to enhance the function of CAR T-cells and importantly activating a parallel immune response against the cancer via CD8+ killer T-cells. This is expected to lead to a broad attack against most antigen targets on cancer cells. The iTANK-platform is used to enhance the company's own CAR T-cells but can also be universally applied to other CAR T-cell therapies under development. Proof-of-concept data was published in Nature Biomedical Engineering in April 2022. The publication, titled “CAR T cells expressing a bacterial virulence factor trigger potent bystander antitumour responses in solid cancers” (DOI number: 10.1038/s41551-022-00875-5)can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-022-00875-5. More information about iTANK-platform is available here: https://www.elicera.com/technology
About Elicera Therapeutics AB
Elicera Therapeutics AB is a clinical stage cell and gene therapy company that develops next generation immuno-oncology treatments based on enhanced oncolytic viruses and CAR T-cells. The work is based on high-profile long-standing research conducted by Professor Magnus Essand's research group at Uppsala University and has resulted in the development of four drug candidates, including two CAR T-cells and two oncolytic viruses. In addition, Elicera has developed a technology platform called iTANK that can be used to optimize all CAR T-cells in development and activate killer T-cells against cancer. The company’s share (ELIC) is traded on Nasdaq First North Growth Market. G&W Fondkommission has been appointed the Company's Certified Adviser. E-mail: ca@gwkapital.se, tel: +468-503 000 50.
For more information, please visit www.elicera.com