T-Cure Bioscience Announces Expansion of Collaboration With the National Institutes of Health for T Cell Receptor (TCR) Therapy Targeting HERV-E for the Treatment of Kidney Cancer

SHERMAN OAKS, Calif.--()--T-Cure Bioscience, Inc., a privately held company focused on developing autologous T cell receptor (TCR) therapy products for the treatment of solid tumors, today announced that the Company has extended its ongoing research collaboration with the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), through a formal Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to advance the Company’s HERV-E targeting TCR therapy for renal cell cancer. Additionally, T-Cure has amended an existing license to expand to worldwide rights for the intellectual property it licensed from NHBI related to the anti-HERV-E TCR product. This TCR therapy is currently in a Phase 1 trial at NHLBI for the treatment of metastatic clear cell Renal Cell Carcinoma (ccRCC) that failed an angiogenic inhibitor and a checkpoint inhibitor. T-Cure has been actively collaborating for the past 18 months with NHLBI on the research and development of the HERV-E-specific TCR.

Under the CRADA, T-Cure and NHLBI will collaborate to develop a companion test to identify HERV-E transcripts in patients’ tumors as well as to identify additional therapy candidates targeting HERV-E using the Company’s proprietary TCR discovery platform, iSORTTM. Additionally, NHLBI and T-Cure plan to conduct preclinical experiments characterizing novel TCR and will evaluate various drug and TCR combination anti-tumor therapeutic strategies.

“We are extremely excited to work with the NIH to advance this novel HERV-E TCR therapy candidate through preclinical and clinical development,” stated Gang Zeng, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of T-Cure. “Of note, the TCR was isolated from a dominant killer T cell clone of a late stage metastatic ccRCC patient who responded to an immunotherapy and survived 4 years. The HERV-E-specific TCR represents a rare opportunity for us to specifically target ccRCC, a potential T cell responsive solid tumor.”

The HERV-E target is one of the quiescent Human Endogenous Retrovirus (HERV) sequences that are activated during tumor development. A growing number of HERV genes and proteins are expressed in different cancers raising the possibility that HERV derived antigens might represent excellent targets for tumor immunotherapy. Its expression in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is highly selective, with no transcripts detected in any normal tissues. In contrast to well-studied antigens such as NY-ESO-1 and MAGE, HERV-E represents a new frontier of TCR targets with significant clinical potential for immunotherapy.

About T-Cure Bioscience, Inc.

T-Cure Bioscience, Inc. is an innovative immuno-oncology company committed to delivering effective and durable cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. The Company focuses on isolating high avidity TCR that can be used to engineer a patient’s T cells to effectively target and destroy solid tumors. The Company maintains a pipeline of TCR under clinical and pre-clinical development targeting HERV-E, KK-LC-1, NY-ESO-1 and other antigens associated with solid tumors of significant unmet medical needs, including kidney cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, gastric cancer, ovarian cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, sarcoma, and glioblastoma. More information is available at www.T-Cure.com.

Forward Looking Statements

T-Cure cautions you that all statements, other than statements of historical facts, contained in this press release, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our or our industry’s actual results, levels or activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those anticipated by such statements. The use of words such as “may”, “might”, “will”, “should”, “could”, “expect”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “project”, “intend”, “future”, “potential” or “continue”, and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward looking statements. For example, all statements we make regarding (i) the initiation, timing, cost, progress and results of our preclinical and clinical studies and our research and development programs, (ii) our ability to advance product candidates into, and successfully complete, clinical studies, (iii) the timing or likelihood of regulatory filings and approvals, (iv) our ability to develop, manufacture and commercialize our product candidates and to improve the manufacturing process, (v) the rate and degree of market acceptance of our product candidates, (vi) the size and growth potential of the markets for our product candidates and our ability to serve those markets, and (vii) our expectations regarding our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for our product candidates, are forward looking. All forward-looking statements are based on current estimates, assumptions and expectations by our management that, although we believe to be reasonable, are inherently uncertain. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those that we expected. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it was made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Contacts

T-Cure Bioscience, Inc. IR & Media Contact

Rutland Baker
(IR@T-cure.com)

Contacts

T-Cure Bioscience, Inc. IR & Media Contact

Rutland Baker
(IR@T-cure.com)