A UK biotechnology company is testing whether a targeted immunotherapy can help leukaemia patients who relapse after standard chemotherapy. Half of adult leukaemia patients do not achieve lasting responses to initial treatment and eventually relapse. For patients diagnosed after age 60, the outlook is especially bleak—many die within 12 months. Current treatments are not good enough, and safer, more effective options are urgently needed. Cell Medica’s immunotherapy product is designed to train the body’s own immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells. This clinical study will assess its safety and effectiveness in patients with specific types of leukaemia. If the results are positive, the company will run further trials in leukaemia and other cancers, with the goal of registering the therapy as an approved medicine in the UK, Europe, and the US. That would allow the treatment to be made available commercially to patients who currently have few alternatives.
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Cell Medica is a UK-based company developing cancer medicines in the area of “immunotherapy”. Immunotherapy involves enhancing or targeting the body’s immune system to recognise and fight various diseases. Immunotherapy has the potential to be transformational in the way certain cancers are treated. The Biomedical Catalyst grant will enable Cell Medica to run a clinical study in the UK to assess the safety and effectiveness of a targeted immunotherapy product in patients with certain types of leukaemia. Despite good responses to induction chemotherapy, approximately 50% of adult patients with leukaemia do not achieve durable responses and subsequently relapse. In patients over 60 years at the time of diagnosis, the prognosis is particularly poor and many do not live beyond 12 months. It is clear that safer and more effective cancer treatments are needed; Cell Medica’s immunotherapy product has the potential to be of significant benefit to these patients. Assuming successful completion of this study, Cell Medica will conduct further clinical studies to confirm the safety and anti-cancer activity of the immunotherapy product. Studies will be run in leukaemia and other types of cancer. These data can then be used to register the therapy in the UK and Europe – in addition to other territories such as the US - as an approved medicine, a step which will allow Cell Medica to provide this therapy commercially to patients in need, throughout the UK and other countries.
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