Recent Articles in Cell & Gene Therapy

Wondercel Therapeutics, a Shenzhen next-gen immune cell therapy company, raised $14 million in an angel round from Yuansheng Venture, the only investor in the funding. Wondercel is led by the former CSO and Co-Founder of Nanjing’s Legend Biotech, Xiaohu Fan. Legend made its name by developing the first CAR-T therapy in China, Carvykti, an autologous BCMA targeting CAR-T approved in China, the US and EU for multiple myeloma. Dr Fan has said the new company will develop safer and less-expensive immune cell therapies for oncology, organ transplantation and autoimmune diseases. More details....

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Shenzhen ImmVira reported its first intratumoral injected oncolytic virus product, MVR-T3011 IT, was effective in early tests, raising Progression-Free Survival in melanoma patients to 12.9 months. The patients had previously failed another treatment. MVR-T3011 is a 3-in-1 oncolytic herpes simplex virus that aims to achieve the best profile of attenuated HSV-1 with high levels of replication in tumor cells while causing only highly restricted replication in normal cells. The product includes two well-validated exogenous genes, PD-1 antibody and IL-12, to enhance the immune responses in the tumor microenvironment. More details....

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NeuShen Therapeutics, a Shanghai-Boston CNS biotech, announced a three-year Sponsored Research Agreement with UMass Chan Medical School to develop a gene therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). NeuShen is developing CNS therapies using its dual AAV-based gene and small molecule platforms. The program will be under the direction of Dr. Guangping Gao, PhD, a well-known gene therapy researcher who has played an important role in discovering and characterizing a new family of adeno-associated virus (AAV) serotypes, which has advanced gene therapy research for currently untreatable human diseases. More details....

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Beijing Help Therapeutics was approved to start China clinical trials of HiCM-188, a universal allogeneic iPS cell-derived cardiomyocyte therapy in patients with ischemic heart failure. It has already begun similar trials in Japan and Germany. The therapy consists of highly purified allogeneic cardiac muscle cells that are reprogrammed from human iPS cells. The transplanted cardiomyocytes are expected to couple electrically with the patient's myocardium to cause remuscularization. Founded in 2016, Help claims to be China’s first company to use induced pluripotent stem cells and mesenchymal stem cell technology to develop universal cell therapies for unmet needs in degenerative diseases. More details....

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HuidaGene Therapeutics, a Shanghai-New Jersey gene editing company, was cleared to start a US Phase I trial of its lead product, a CRISPR-based genomic medicine for patients with inherited RPE65 retinal dystrophies. RPE65 retinal dystrophies are a group of genetic diseases caused by mutations in the RPE65 gene that affect the retina, causing blindness in 100% of patients by age 40. The company believes its optimized CRSPR/Cas-based RNA editing tools are smaller, more efficient, and more specific than the competition, allowing lower dosing of its AAV vectors. It expects the candidate will be a one-time therapy for RPE65 retinal disorders. More details....

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