On May 9, 2022 Ingenium Therapeutics reported that it has applied to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for phase 2 clinical trials of ‘Memory-NK’ cell therapy for relapsed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) (Press release, Ingenium Therapeutics, MAY 9, 2022, View Source [SID1234643521]).
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This phase 2 will be conducted at three medical institutions in Korea, including Asan Medical Center in Seoul, Samsung Medical Center, and St. Mary’s Hospital in Seoul. The goal is to complete clinical trials and receive conditional approval in 2024.
According to the company, chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) treatment is commercially available for lymphocytic leukemia, but there is currently no specific treatment for relapsed AML. Accordingly, it is expected that Memory-NK treatment will provide an innovative treatment method.
Ingenium’s Memory-NK cell therapy product is expected to have strong anti-cancer properties due to its high expression level of surface-activated receptors and high levels of ‘interferon gamma (IFN-r)’. It was said that cell viability was also high, overcoming the problem of short in vivo survival period, known as a limitation of existing NK cell treatments.
Ingenium said that it confirmed the therapeutic efficacy and safety of Memory-NK cells in a clinical trial conducted by researchers on about 100 patients with recurrent AML. It was said that the anti-cancer treatment potential was also confirmed in animal test models of solid cancers such as lung cancer, liver cancer, and colon cancer. Ingenium plans to formulate and conduct clinical trials of Memory-NK for the treatment of solid tumors in the future.
In addition, basic research on ‘CAR-NK’ and ‘NK engager’ is also being conducted to increase the effectiveness of Memory-NK. Preclinical research is also underway for a self-developed peptide (IGTN13) that has been shown to increase the anti-cancer effect of NK cells. We plan to begin clinical trials of additional candidate substances sequentially within two years.
Ingenium completed ‘Pre-Series A’ funding worth 5.7 billion won in March. We plan to recruit investors for Series A by September.