Avalon GloboCare Corp (NASDAQ:AVCO) said it will collaborate with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Hillman Cancer Center to advance the company's AVA-011 therapy and other RNA-based candidates.
AVA-011 targets tumor antigens on cancer cells and is being developed for patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma ahead of the first human clinical trials.
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The candidate and others use Avalon's FLASH-CAR technology, which modifies patients’ T-cells and natural killer (NK) cells using a ribonucleic acid (RNA)-based platform rather than a viral vector. The tech is being co-developed with the company’s strategic partner Arbele Limited.
Avalon and the cancer center will co-develop and deploy Avalon’s new Point-of-Care Modular Autonomous Processing System (PMAPsys) onsite. This is a proprietary laboratory platform intended to provide point-of-care process development, optimization, validation and manufacturing of clinical-grade products for cell and gene therapies at Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facilities.
"This is an important milestone in the clinical development and production of AVA-011 and other RNA-based FLASH-CAR candidates ahead of the start of our first-in-human clinical trials,” said David Jin, CEO of Avalon GloboCare, in a statement.
"We are excited about our partnership on the PMAPsys with UPMC, which we believe will help accelerate the path to bringing our own and third-party cell therapies to market.
"We are working diligently to fast-track development and commercialization of our cellular immune-oncology therapeutic products, while providing the highest quality and safety standards for our patients."
Dr. Yen-Michael Hsu from the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and the principal investigator of this co-development program said: "I am thrilled to collaborate with Avalon on FLASH-CAR™cellular therapy candidates and to co-develop Avalon’s new PMAPsys platform.
"This cohesive, point-of-care facility could greatly enhance and improve process development, bio-production, validation and quality assessment of candidate cellular therapies. We believe this approach will lessen the burden in meeting regulatory requirements and reduce the overall manufacturing costs of clinical-grade products for cellular therapies."
Avalon is a clinical-stage, vertically integrated, leading CellTech bio-developer focused on innovative, transformative immune effector cell therapy, exosome technology, as well as coronavirus (COVID-19) related diagnostics and therapeutics.
Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com