Imugene Ltd (ASX:IMU, OTC:IUGNF) has entered a strategic co-development collaboration with JW Therapeutics (Shanghai) Co. LTD (HKEX: 2126) to evaluate a novel combination immunotherapy for patients with advanced, hard-to-treat solid tumours. The partnership will investigate the use of Imugene’s oncolytic virus CF33-CD19 (onCARlytics) together with JW’s CD19-directed autologous CAR-T cell therapy, Carteyva®, in an effort to extend the benefits of CD19 CAR-T technology beyond blood cancers into solid tumours.
Under the agreement, the companies will first undertake a series of preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies, before progressing to a Phase 1 investigator-initiated trial in China, to be conducted at leading CAR-T clinical centres.
The therapeutic concept is based on a first-in-class “mark and kill” strategy: Imugene’s CF33-CD19 oncolytic virus is used to infect tumour cells and induce CD19 expression on their surface, effectively “marking” them. This engineered CD19 expression is then exploited by CD19-directed CAR-T cells, such as Carteyva®, which can recognise and attack the now CD19-positive solid tumour cells.
“This collaboration allows us to validate our onCARlytics platform in combination with an approved autologous CAR-T product,” Imugene managing director and CEO Leslie Chong said.
“We believe Carteyva®, which is already approved in blood cancer, is an ideal choice, and this initiative enables us to generate impactful data efficiently while exploring a breakthrough treatment paradigm for solid tumours.”
A potential step-change
The collaboration brings together JW’s established commercial CAR-T infrastructure and experience with Imugene’s clinical-stage onCARlytics platform, with the goal of generating robust preclinical and early clinical data to guide further development. Both companies see this as a potential step-change in making solid tumours targetable by CD19 CAR-T therapies, addressing a key challenge in the broader application of cell-based immunotherapies.
It sets defined go/no-go decision points and milestones to maintain disciplined capital allocation while preserving strategic flexibility.