On February 3, 2023 Gracell Biotechnologies Inc. ("Gracell" or the "Company", NASDAQ: GRCL), a global clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing highly efficacious and affordable cell therapies for the treatment of cancer, reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared Gracell’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application and the Company can proceed to initiate a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial in the U.S. of GC012F, an autologous CAR-T therapeutic candidate, for the treatment of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) (Press release, Gracell Biotechnologies, FEB 3, 2023, View Source [SID1234626833]).
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GC012F is an autologous CAR-T therapeutic candidate dual-targeting B cell maturation antigen (BCMA) and CD19, and utilizes Gracell’s proprietary FasTCAR next-day manufacturing platform. In November 2021, the FDA granted GC012F Orphan Drug Designation for the treatment of multiple myeloma. GC012F is currently being studied in multiple investigator-initiated trials (IIT) evaluating its safety and efficacy in RRMM, newly-diagnosed multiple myeloma, and B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. At the European Hematology Association (EHA) (Free EHA Whitepaper) 2022 Hybrid Congress, Gracell presented longer-term follow-up clinical data of GC012F in RRMM that showed a 100% minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity rate in all patients treated.
Gracell plans to initiate a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial in the second quarter of 2023 in the U.S. to further evaluate GC012F in RRMM patients. The Phase 1b portion of the trial is designed to evaluate the safety and tolerability of GC012F in RRMM patients, determine the recommended dose of GC012F for Phase 2 and characterize the pharmacokinetics of GC012F in RRMM patients. The Phase 2 portion is intended to evaluate the efficacy of GC012F in RRMM patients and further characterize the safety of GC012F.
"Advancing our lead therapeutic candidate into a U.S. clinical trial is major milestone for Gracell, and further validates our GC012F program, proprietary FasTCAR next-day manufacturing platform and novel dual-targeting approach," said Dr. William (Wei) Cao, founder, Chairman, and CEO of Gracell. "Having demonstrated deep responses and a favorable safety profile across indications, GC012F continues showing strong potential to become a transformative therapy. We look forward to initiating the Phase 1b/2 clinical trial and to bringing this promising therapeutic candidate one step closer to patients in need."
About GC012F
GC012F is a FasTCAR-enabled BCMA/CD19 dual-targeting CAR-T product candidate that is currently being evaluated in IIT studies in China for the treatment of multiple myeloma and B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. GC012F simultaneously targets CD19 and BCMA to drive fast, deep and durable responses, which can potentially improve efficacy and reduce relapse in multiple myeloma and B-NHL patients.
About FasTCAR
CAR-T cells manufactured on Gracell’s proprietary FasTCAR platform appear younger, less exhausted and show enhanced proliferation, persistence, bone marrow migration and tumor cell clearance activities as demonstrated in preclinical studies. With next-day manufacturing, FasTCAR is able to significantly improve cell production efficiency which may result in meaningful cost savings, and, together with fast release time, enables enhanced accessibility of cell therapies for cancer patients.