The Company now has exclusive rights to a Malaysia, US and China patent
SINGAPORE, Jan. 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CytoMed Therapeutics Limited (NASDAQ: GDTC) ("CytoMed" or "Company"), a Singapore-based biopharmaceutical company focused on harnessing its proprietary technologies to develop novel donor-derived cell-based immunotherapies for the treatment of various cancers, announced today that the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia has granted a patent for its chimeric antigen receptor gamma delta T cell ("CAR-γδ T cell") technology, which targets solid and hematological tumors.
The patent titled "Gamma Delta T Cells and a Method of Augmenting the Tumoricidal Activity of the Same" (Patent number: MY-200528-A) covers technologies for the clinical-scale expansion of γδ T cells from a small amount of donor peripheral blood cells, as well as the modification of the expanded γδ T cells to incorporate a chimeric antigen receptor ("CAR") that enables the modified cells to recognize a wide range of cancers, including both solid and hematological cancers. The Company holds an exclusive, worldwide license to use this patent pursuant to the License Agreement dated June 1, 2018, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as an exhibit to the registration statement on Form F-1 (File No.: 333-268456) on March 30, 2023.
"With the commencement of our first in-human clinical trial for CAR-γδ T cells in Singapore, we are pleased that our technology is granted a patent in Malaysia where our operational PIC/S GMP facility is situated," said Peter Choo, Chairman of CytoMed. "This grant adds to the breadth of our tumor-targeting therapy patent portfolio, alongside a US patent and Chinese patent in respect of this CAR T technology. This patent grant is timely as Malaysia is attracting more biomedical innovators amidst an ageing population and reputation as a medical tourism hub."
CytoMed's CAR-γδ T cell technology has been developed as an investigational cancer therapy to target NKG2D ligands, a type of stress-induced cancer antigens. The risk of "on-target-off-cancer" side effects may be reduced by targeting stress-induced antigens that are mainly expressed on cancer cells such as NKG2D ligands. The allogeneic CAR-γδ T cells for the clinical trial will be manufactured from donor blood and will be processed in CytoMed's current PIC/S Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility in Malaysia.
The Company's patent portfolio also includes an exclusively licensed technology which covers an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based technology to derive novel synthetic hybrid gamma delta natural killer T cells (γδ NKT cells) for the treatment of various types of cancers. A patent for this proprietary technology has been granted in Japan and China, and this asset is under preclinical development.
As a separate update, the Company has on January 12, 2024 submitted a drug master file to the US Food and Drug Administration in preparation for an investigational new drug filing to treat hematological and solid cancers using our allogeneic γδ T cells.