BOSTON, Sept. 8, 2018 — CARsgen Therapeutics, a Shanghai-based clinical-stage immune-oncology company committed to developing Chimeric Antigen Receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapies for cancer, presented preliminary data of their first-in-class CAR-Claudin18.2 T-cell clinical trial in pancreatic and gastric cancer patients during the 2018 CAR-TCR Summit in Boston.

Cancers of the stomach and pancreas still have limited treatment options. According to an estimate by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2015, more than 754,000 patients die of gastric cancer each year. The annual incidence of gastric cancer in China exceeds 600,000 cases per year. Pancreatic cancer has a yearly mortality rate of 200,000 patients as reported by the Lancet in 2016.

The first-in-human study, conducted by principal investigator Dr Xianbao ZHAN from the Shanghai Changhai Hospital, with the Claudin18.2-CAR-T cell, recruited 12 pancreatic and gastric cancer patients. Early results in all patients indicate that the CAR-T treatment is tolerable. A cohort of 6 patients who received optimised administration resulted in 5 objective responses.

“In the next, CARsgen plans a confirmative clinical trial in the U.S. This breakthrough owes to the trust from patients and their families and we can’t make it without the long-standing support from clinic team led by Dr. Xianbao ZHAN”, said Dr. Zonghai LI, Founder, CEO and CSO of CARsgen, who designed the Claudin18.2-CAR-T cell , “This is a great milestone for CAR-T therapies for solid tumors, also a great encouragement for CARsgen as we will continue our innovative research for more therapies to deliver our commitments to cancer patients.”

The Claudin18.2-CAR-T cell was developed in 2017 in a collaboration between CARSgen and the Shanghai Cancer Institute. A recent publication in the Journal of National Cancer Institute (JNCI) reported that in vitro and in vivo testing of Claudin18.2-CAR-T cell resulted in the elimination of gastric cancer tissues without off-tumour toxicities.