JW Creagene, Oncoinsight to cooperate in developing new immunotherapies – Korea Biomedical Review

JW Creagene said Monday that it would cooperate with Oncoinsight to develop the next-generation anticancer cell therapy called CAR-M.

Through this collaboration, the two companies will jointly research and develop a CAR-Macrophage (CAR-M). This anticancer cell therapy combines a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and macrophages, it said.

JW Creagen, a subsidiary of JW Shinyak, will receive an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived macrophage differentiation technology from Oncoinsight. It then will proceed with iPSC-derived macrophage culture and efficacy evaluation based on its existing dendritic cell treatment development know-how.

Oncoinsight will introduce the CAR gene into macrophages cultured by JW Creagen and manufacture a CAR-M treatment using genetic engineering technology.

"CAR-M treatment is a next-generation immunotherapy that maximizes cancer-specific killing power that only destroys cancer cells without affecting normal cells by applying a CAR gene that allows macrophages to recognize specific cancer antigens," JW Creagen said. "Unlike T cells, which have limited movement to the tumor site, macrophages are well found around solid tumors."

While the development of CAR-T treatment mainly focuses on blood cancer indications, the company expects that the CAR-M treatment developed through this cooperation will show excellent efficacy in solid cancers that account for more than 90 percent of all cancer patients, it added.

JW Creagene noted that since it is an allogeneic treatment rather than using the patient's cells, they can mass-produce the treatment while greatly lowering manufacturing costs.

"Few companies worldwide have a platform for the development of CAR-M therapeutics," Oncoinsight CEO Na Deuk-chae said. "This joint research with JW Creagene will bring about a new paradigm shift in the field of anticancer cell therapy."

JW Creagene CEO Park Chan-hee also said, "Research cooperation with Oncoinsight, recognized for its expertise in the field of immune cell therapy R&D, has enabled us to strengthen the pipeline of next-generation cell therapy products."

The accumulated know-how of dendritic cell-based JW Creagene and the innovative technology of Oncoinsight will create synergy, Park added.

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JW Creagene, Oncoinsight to cooperate in developing new immunotherapies - Korea Biomedical Review