MD Anderson and Amgen announce collaboration to accelerate early-stage treatments for leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, multiple myeloma, small-cell lung and other small-cell cancers
Efforts to focus on pre-clinical and clinical research for up to 16 early-stage programs across various cancer types
Multi-year agreements build on long-term partnership in immune-oncology, including BiTE? therapies and CAR-T programs.
MD Anderson News Release May 31, 2018
Â鶹ӳ» MD Anderson Cancer Center and Amgen today announced two multi-year collaboration agreements aimed at accelerating development of a variety of Amgen¡¯s early-stage oncology therapies for patients with leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, multiple myeloma, small-cell lung cancer, and other non-lung cancers with small-cell histologies. The agreements combine Amgen therapies nearing clinical development or those that have already begun the process with MD Anderson's translational medicine capabilities.
The collaborations will focus on Amgen¡¯s bispecific T cell engager (BiTE?), chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell and small molecule programs. Amgen is advancing both types of T cell therapies against different targets and, in some cases, the same target. BiTE? antibody constructs and CAR T cell therapies differ in their approach, though they share the same goal ¨C activating a patient's immune system to eradicate cancer. BiTE? antibody constructs work by bridging T cells to tumor cells, enabling them to attack tumor cells, while CAR T cell therapies reengineer a patient¡¯s own T cells to recognize tumor-specific antigens, inciting an immune system attack against cancer cells.
"The field of immuno-oncology is rapidly evolving and combining resources from both organizations could be important in answering key scientific questions,¡± said Patrick Hwu, M.D., division head of Cancer Medicine at MD Anderson. ¡°The collaboration allows MD Anderson to study up to 16 different oncology treatments which we hope will lead to rapid development and advancement of important therapies into clinical practice.¡±
The five-year collaboration will begin with Phase 1 clinical studies for BiTE? antibody constructs and CAR T cell therapies for multiple myeloma and small cell lung cancer. The second agreement spans four years and will study BiTE? antibody constructs, CAR T and small molecule treatments in leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes. The collaboration includes multi-institutional pre-clinical and clinical trials, some of which will be led by MD Anderson, which may offer the potential for identifying new biomarkers.