Actioning the findings of a strategic review in October 2022, Arovella Therapeutics Ltd (ASX:ALA) has completed the shutdown of the Perth OroMist Research and Development (R&D) facility.
The closure will likely save ALA as much as $1.5 million a year based on historical expenditure, as it removes the ongoing costs of OroMist research and development.
The company intends to focus its resources on its iNKT cell therapy platform, which Arovella believes has ‘significant’ potential to generate allogeneic cell therapies that target both blood cancers and solid tumours.
The iNKT cell therapy platform
“This is a positive step forward for Arovella and will provide us with a laser focus on the iNKT cell therapy platform,” Arovella Therapeutics CEO and managing director Dr Michael Baker said.
“Nevertheless, I would like to personally thank everyone involved for the professionalism demonstrated in completing the orderly shutdown of the R&D facility.”
ALA-101, a treatment ALA is developing for hematological malignancies (blood cancers) that express CD19, recently received positive feedback during the annual American Association for Cancer Research conference.
Arovella is also developing ALA-101 in partnership with Imugene’s onCARlytics platform, targeting solid tumours.
In-vitro tests have demonstrated the combination of the two treatments is capable of killing solid tumour cells, prompting the biomed partners to move to vivo mouse models for further testing.