Mustang Bio, a Fortress Biotech company focused on the development of novel immunotherapies based on proprietary chimeric antigen receptor engineered T cell (CAR T) technology, today announced that research and development partner City of Hope has received a $12.8 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to fund an ongoing Phase 1 study of Mustang’s MB-101 (IL13Rα2‐specific CAR T cells) for the treatment of patients with recurrent and refractory malignant glioma, including glioblastoma.
The City of Hope research team led by Christine Brown, Ph.D., Heritage Provider Network Professor in Immunotherapy and Associate Director of the T Cell Therapeutics Research Laboratory, and a clinical team headed by Behnam Badie, M.D., Chief of Neurosurgery, will use the funds to support two expanded arms of the Phase 1 trial. The Stratum III arm will evaluate the intracerebroventricular (ICV) administration of MB-101 CAR T cells infused into the cerebrospinal fluid, and the Stratum IV arm will assess the intracavitary and ICV administration of MB-101 CAR T cells at the tumor site and into the cerebrospinal fluid.
Manuel Litchman, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Mustang, said, “MB-101 has demonstrated compelling therapeutic potential when infused into the ventricular system, specifically delivering an unprecedented complete response in a glioblastoma patient, which was published in December 2016 in The New England Journal of Medicine. This grant will enable the expansion of the Phase 1 trial to continue to explore the most effective delivery methods of MB-101. We would like to congratulate our research and development partners at City of Hope on this prestigious achievement, and look forward to continuing to work with the City of Hope team to advance MB-101, as well as our four other partnered CAR T programs, to patients with a variety of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors.”
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
