WT1

- GPS Currently Investigated in Phase 3 REGAL Trial in Adult AML Patients – Interim Analysis Anticipated in Q4 2024 - - RPDD Provides Eligibility for GPS to Receive a Priority Review Voucher (PRV) Upon Marketing Approval that can be Transferred/Sold to Other Parties – - Recent Valuations for PRVs Remain Attractive (~$100 million/each) – Oct. 15, 2024 -- SELLAS Life Sciences Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SLS) (“SELLAS” or the “Company”), a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapies for a broad range of cancer indications, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Rare Pediatric Disease Designation (RPDD) to Galinpepimut-S (GPS), an immunotherapeutic targeting Wilms Tumor-1 (WT1), for the treatment of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML). “GPS has already demonstrated promise in clinical settings for AML, and we believe its potential could extend to pediatric patients,” said Angelos Stergiou, MD, ScD h.c., President and Chief Executive Officer of SELLAS. “Receiving RPDD from the FDA is another acknowledgment of the critical need for new treatment options for AML and our results in adult patients. In our Phase 2 trial in adult patients which included patients as young as 25, clinical benefits were significantly higher in younger patients, which was expected based on the mechanism of action of GPS that is mediated via the immune system that is generally better preserved in younger patients, and even more so in children. With both of our development candidates, GPS and SLS009, now granted RPDD for AML, this recognition further reinforces our commitment to delivering potential new therapies to children affected by this challenging condition.” AML prognosis with currently available treatments in the refractory and/or relapsed pediatric patient population remains poor. In a representative study, the 5-year overall survival (OS) rate in relapsed pediatric AML was 33% for all patients, and in patients whose remission lasted less than 12 months only 15.7%. In patients who did not achieve complete remission after one course of chemotherapy, 5-year overall survival was 0%. About 50% of children with pediatric AML relapse. Generally, the only therapy considered curative in relapsed and refractory patients is a bone marrow transplant and the primary goal of chemotherapy is to achieve remission so that pediatric patients can be transplanted. In adult AML patients in first complete remission, GPS showed a median OS of 67.6 months across all ages with a favorable safety profile in an earlier Phase 2 study and induced T-lymphocytes response in both cytotoxic CD8+ cells and memory and helper CD4-+ cells with its innovative heteroclitic technology. In that study, outcomes were even better in younger patients in whom neither the median disease-free survival (DFS) nor OS was reached, i.e. among younger patients more than half of the patients were alive and leukemia-free for more than 5 years after treatment commenced. Rare Pediatric Disease Designation is granted by the FDA for serious or life-threatening diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the United States and in which the serious or life-threatening manifestations primarily affect individuals less than 18 years of age. If, in the future, a New Drug Application (NDA) for GPS for the treatment of pediatric AML is approved by the FDA, SELLAS will be eligible to receive a Priority Review Voucher (PRV) that could be redeemed to receive a priority review for any subsequent marketing application. PRVs may be used by the sponsor or sold to another sponsor for their use and have recently sold for approximately $100 million. SELLAS is a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapeutics for a broad range of cancer indications. SELLAS’ lead product candidate, GPS, is licensed from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and targets the WT1 protein, which is present in an array of tumor types. GPS has the potential as a monotherapy and combination with other therapies to address a broad spectrum of hematologic malignancies and solid tumor indications. The Company is also developing SLS009 (formerly GFH009) - potentially the first and best-in-class differentiated small molecule CDK9 inhibitor with reduced toxicity and increased potency compared to other CDK9 inhibitors. Data suggests that SLS009 demonstrated a high response rate in AML patients with unfavorable prognostic factors including ASXL1 mutation, commonly associated with poor prognosis in various myeloid diseases. For more information on SELLAS, please visit www.sellaslifesciences.com. The content above comes from the network. if any infringement, please contact us to modify.

iStock, Love Employee The pediatric patients, with a rare neurodegenerative disease, were treated with bluebird bio’s Skysona to slow the progression of neurologic dysfunction. Six patients developed myelodysplastic syndrome and one patient developed acute myeloid leukemia. Seven children treated with bluebird bio ’s gene therapy Skysona for cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy, a rare and progressive neurodegenerative disease, developed blood cancers, according to a study published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine . Six of the seven cases of hematological malignancies were diagnosed as myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), arising between 14 and 92 months after Skysona treatment. The other patient was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) at 57 months. Six patients were subsequently treated with stem cell transplantation, which led to one death due to graft-versus-host disease. The single AML patient remains alive and has shown good response to the transplant. According to the researchers, the emergent blood cancers are linked with clonal vector insertions in cancer-related genes, and with the accumulation of somatic mutations in certain sites of interest, including in the KRAS, WT1 and CDKN2A genes. Skysona is a gene therapy that works by delivering functional copies of the ABCD1 gene into patients’ hematopoietic stem cells, which promotes the production of mature monocytes that can express functional ALDP proteins. ALDP plays an important role in the breakdown of very long chain fatty acids. In September 2022, the FDA granted Skysona accelerated approval to the slow the progression neurologic dysfunction in boys four to 17 years of age with cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (CALD), a rare and neurodegenerative disorder caused by a dysfunctional ABCD1 gene and which leads to severe functional decline. In the Phase II/III Starbeam trial, which formed the basis of its regulatory win, Skysona demonstrated strong major functional disability-free survival over 24 months. In terms of safety, Starbeam detected cases of nausea, vomiting and febrile neutropenia, among other mild toxicities. Adverse events of grade 3 or 4 included lymphopenia, thrombocytopenia and hypokalemia. Skysona’s label carries a boxed warning for hematologic malignancies, including “life-threatening cases” of MDS. These complications appear to be the result of the Skysona lentiviral vector that becomes integrated in proto-oncogenes—similar to what had been documented in the NEJM study. The concerns about secondary blood cancers are not new. In August 2021, about a year before Skysona’s approval, the FDA hit its development program with a clinical hold after one patient developed MDS following treatment. In an advisory committee meeting in June 2022, however, a panel of external experts unanimously backed bluebird, agreeing that Skysona’s benefits outweigh its risks. Wednesday’s study results come less than a month after news broke that patients had finally started receiving infusions of another bluebird gene therapy, Lyfgenia, for sickle cell disease. It is not yet clear whether the new safety signals will have far-reaching implications for bluebird’s portfolio.

Marker Therapeutics to receive non-dilutive funding from NIH Small Business Innovation Research Program based on preliminary clinical results and non-clinical data in lymphoma Aug. 12, 2024-- Marker Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRKR), a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company focusing on developing next-generation T cell-based immunotherapies for the treatment of hematological malignancies and solid tumor indications, today announced that the Company has been awarded a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to support the clinical investigation of MT-601 in patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) who have relapsed following anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy. The SBIR grant has been awarded based in part on Marker’s preliminary clinical data in patients with lymphoma (Press Release, September 11, 2023) as well as non-clinical data demonstrating the anti-tumor activity of MT-601 on anti-CD19 CAR resistant lymphoma cells (Press Release, May 31, 2023). The proceeds of the grant will support the nationwide multi-center Phase 1 APOLLO study (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05798897), evaluating the safety and efficacy of MT-601, a multi-tumor associated antigen (multiTAA)-specific T cell product, in patients with relapsed NHL including those previously treated with anti-CD19 CAR-T cell therapy. Including this SBIR grant, the Company has been awarded over $19 million in non-dilutive funding proceeds. “We are pleased to receive the SBIR grant from the NIH to support our clinical Phase 1 study in CAR-relapsed patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” said Juan Vera, M.D., President and CEO of Marker Therapeutics. “Although anti-CD19 CAR-T cells are rapidly expanding as a treatment option in patients with hematological malignancies, approximately 40-60% of patients will relapse within the first year of therapy with currently no standard of care for patients post CD19-targeting CAR-T cells. The NIH award process is highly competitive, and we believe that the decision the NIH made suggests the potential scientific merit and the capacity of Marker’s APOLLO study to address an unmet medical need.” Dr. Vera continued: “While our results of the APOLLO study are preliminary, as we move through the dose escalation part of the study, we are encouraged by the objective responses observed in all three study participants treated at City of Hope (Press Release, April 8, 2024) and the lack of cytokine release syndrome (CRS) or immune effector cell associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS) observed. We will continue to closely monitor all patients for long-term treatment effects and durability of response, and with the non-dilutive funding support from NIH we look forward to treating additional participants in this Phase 1 study.” “This grant award is a testimony of our continued commitment to apply for non-dilutive funding and allows us to leverage our data to drive innovation and growth while maximizing shareholder value. Obtaining non-dilutive funding is an ongoing effort, and we are actively applying for additional opportunities as they become available,” concluded Dr. Vera. The NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program sets aside more than $1.2 billion from its Research & Development Funding to specifically support early-stage small businesses throughout the United States. Many companies leverage the NIH SBIR funding to attract the partners and investors needed to take an innovation to market. The Small Business program focuses on a variety of high-impact technologies including research tools, diagnostics, digital health, drugs, and medical devices, and can provide the seed funding needed to bring scientific innovations from bench to bedside. The Company’s lead product, MT-601, is a multi-tumor associated antigen (multiTAA)-specific T cell product that utilizes a non-genetically modified approach that specifically targets six different tumor antigens upregulated in lymphoma cells (Survivin, PRAME, WT-1, NY-ESO-1, SSX-2, MAGE-A4). Marker is currently investigating MT-601 in the Company-sponsored Phase 1 APOLLO trial (clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT05798897) for the treatment of lymphoma patients who are relapsed after or where CD19 CAR-T cell therapy is not an option.About APOLLO The APOLLO trial (clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT05798897) is a Phase 1, multicenter, open-label study designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of MT-601 in participants with lymphoma who relapsed after anti-CD19 CAR-T cell therapy or where anti-CD19 CAR-T cell therapy is not an option. The primary objective of this exploratory Phase 1 clinical trial is to evaluate the safety and preliminary efficacy of MT-601 in participants with various lymphoma subtypes. Under the APOLLO trial, it is anticipated that nine clinical sites across the United States will cumulatively enroll up to approximately 30 participants during the dose escalation phase. The multi-tumor associated antigen (multiTAA)-specific T cell platform is a novel, non-genetically modified cell therapy approach that selectively expands tumor-specific T cells from a patient's/donor’s blood capable of recognizing a broad range of tumor antigens. Unlike other T cell therapies, multiTAA-specific T cells allow the recognition of hundreds of different epitopes within up to six tumor-specific antigens, thereby reducing the possibility of tumor escape. Since multiTAA-specific T cells are not genetically engineered, Marker believes that its product candidates will be easier and less expensive to manufacture, with an improved safety profile, compared to current engineered T cell approaches, and may provide patients with meaningful clinical benefits. Marker Therapeutics, Inc. is a Houston, TX-based clinical-stage immuno-oncology company specializing in the development of next-generation T cell-based immunotherapies for the treatment of hematological malignancies and solid tumors. Clinical trials that enrolled more than 200 patients across various hematological and solid tumor indications showed that the Company’s autologous and allogeneic multiTAA-specific T cell products were well tolerated and demonstrated durable clinical responses. Marker’s goal is to introduce novel T cell therapies to the market and improve patient outcomes. To achieve these objectives, the Company prioritizes the preservation of financial resources and focuses on operational excellence. Marker’s unique T cell platform is strengthened by non-dilutive funding from U.S. state and federal agencies supporting cancer research. The content above comes from the network. if any infringement, please contact us to modify.