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(Alliance News) - Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals PLC on Thursday said testing of the company's cancer therapy HEMO-CAR-T has yielded positive results and additional engineering may improve the safety and versatility of the therapy.
The company's Chimeric Antigen Receptor programmed T cells therapy is used for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. The therapy is a treatment in which a patient's own T cells, a type of immune cell, are modified to recognise and kill the patient's cancer cells.
Hemogenyx said in-vivo testing of the therapy has indicated anti-cancer activity in a mouse model, with the therapy able to identify and destroy cancer cells.
The company is additionally undertaking further engineering of HEMO-CAR therapy to enhance the activity of the technology. It is introducing and testing a safety switch within the HEMO-CAR technology to control the level of activity of HEMO-CAR-T cells.
"The purpose of these efforts is to dramatically improve the safety and potential versatility of HEMO-CAR-T cells for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia and/or conditioning of bone marrow transplants, as well as a number of additional potential indications," Hemogenyx said.
Vladislav Sandler, chief executive officer, said: "We are encouraged by this new data which demonstrates our continuing progress in the development of novel treatments for blood cancers such as AML. The development of HEMO-CAR-T cells expands Hemogenyx's pipeline and advances it into a cutting-edge area of cell-based immune therapy."
Hemogenyx shares were up 5.3% at 1.98 pence each in London on Thursday afternoon.
By Tapan Panchal; tapanpanchal@alliancenews.com
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