NEW YORK – Carsgen Therapeutics and Moderna on Monday said they are partnering to study Carsgen's autologous CAR T-cell therapy CT041 with Moderna's off-the-shelf messenger RNA cancer vaccine.
Both therapies are designed to target claudin 18.2 expression on cancer cells, high rates of which have been observed in gastric and pancreatic cancers. Carsgen and Moderna believe that combining a cell therapy with an mRNA vaccine could benefit patients more than giving these drugs on their own.
Shanghai-based Carsgen is already studying its autologous CLDN18.2-targeted CAR T-cell therapy CT041 (satricabtagene autoleucel) in clinical trials involving gastric and pancreatic cancer patients in the US and China. The US Food and Drug Administration has granted CT041 orphan drug designation and regenerative medicine advanced therapy designation as a potential treatment for gastric or gastroesophageal cancers, and the European Medicines Agency has granted the agent orphan medicinal product designation and PRIME eligibility status for treating advanced gastric cancer.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna has designed its off-the-shelf mRNA vaccine to encode for the claudin 18.2 protein. "Claudin 18.2 is a promising therapeutic target to potentially treat multiple cancer types with high unmet medical need," Lin Guey, Moderna CSO of external research ventures, said in a statement.
Carsgen and Moderna said they will investigate the CT041-RNA vaccine combination preclinically and in a Phase I trial. The firms did not disclose additional details about the design of the Phase I trial or the financial terms of their agreement.