Inside Prescient Therapeutics’ (ASX:PTX) clinical progress to cancer treatment

Highlights:

• Prescient is developing a portfolio of targeted therapies and cell therapies for cancer treatment.
• In September, the company joined hands with MD Anderson Cancer Center.
• The company believes CellPryme is now ready for clinical use and third-party incorporation.
• PTX-100 is thought to be the only geranylgeranyl transferase-1 (GGT-1) inhibitor in clinical development globally.
• Currently, the company is studying PTX-200 for relapsed and refractory acute myeloid leukemia.

Clinical-stage oncology company Prescient Therapeutics (ASX:PTX) is focused on developing its innovative pipeline in personalised medicine to address significant unmet needs. The company’s development portfolio comprises cell therapies and targeted therapies for a range of cancers. The company has licenced technologies and entered collaboration with renowned cancer centres in the US and Australia.

Image source: Company update

Image description: Oncology assets of PTX 

OmniCAR

OmniCAR is a universal immune receptor platform enabling controllable T-cell activity and multi-antigen targeting with a single cell product.

The company considers OmniCAR as a transformational platform for cellular immunotherapy.

In September, Prescient entered a strategic collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center with the goal of developing best-in-class, adaptable CAR-T cell therapies to treat haematological malignancies. MD Anderson is the largest cancer centre in the US.

The partners will test the potential of this promising TCR-like binder for blood cancers. Read more here

CellPryme-M

CellPryme-M is a novel platform designed to enhance cell therapies. The platform produces superior cells that are long lasting and with higher tumour trafficking and penetration activities.

Image source: Company update 

CellPryme-M has been manufactured at GMP grade and is ready for clinical use. As per PTX, the platform can integrate seamlessly into standard third-party programs and has revenue potential. It is also an attractive option for improving existing suboptimal CAR T products.

CellPryme-A

CellPryme-A is an adjuvant therapy that enhances tumour killing and hosts survival of conventional CAR-T cell therapies.

It overcomes the tumour’s hostile microenvironment and substantially improves the expansion CAR-T cells within the host.

Image source: Company update

The company highlights that clinical trial-ready compound is also open for third-party collaboration.  

PTX-100

The first-in-class compound licenced from Yale University, PTX-100 is believed to hold potential to block GGT-1, a key cancer growth enzyme. 

The compound, which has received Orphan Drug Designation by the US FDA for Peripheral t-cell lymphoma (TCL), is thought to be the only GGT-1 inhibitor in clinical development globally.

© 2022 Kalkine Media®, Data and image source: Company update

In Phase 1b expansion cohort in TCL, PTX-100 has demonstrated a favourable safety profile compared to its peers. Currently approved drugs for PTCL have troublesome safety profiles; however, there are no serious impacts related to PTX-100. It suits the fragile patient population and is a good candidate for combination therapy, highlights the company.

Backed by these developments, Prescient has revised the study protocol with the addition of more patients with peripheral t-cell lymphoma.

PTX-200

A novel PH domain inhibitor, PTX-200 inhibits Akt, a critical tumour survival pathway. Akt plays a major role in the development of leukemia, breast, ovarian and other cancers. 

The highly promising compound, which has secured Orphan Drug Designation from the US FDA, has a novel mechanism of action that inhibits Akt without non-specific kinase inhibition effects, thus differentiating it from other drug candidates.  

Currently, the company is studying PTX-200 for the treatment of relapsed and refractory acute myeloid leukemia in a Phase 1b/2 trial. The trial has resulted in four complete remissions so far. It is currently treating the expansion cohort at 45 mg/m².

© 2022 Kalkine Media®, Data and image source: Company update 

PTX has witnessed significant progress in the last 12 months including

• achieving excellent safety and efficacy data from PTX-100 and PTX-200
• securing US FDA Orphan Drug Designation
• developing robust and reliable manufacturing and supply agreements
• entering important strategic and commercial partnerships

The company believes that these achievements cement its position as an emerging global leader, moving CAR-T therapies beyond their current limitations.

At the time of writing this article, PTX shares were trading at AU$0.150 midday on 5 December 2022.