Results Highlighted in Oral Presentation at the 2016 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting
Atara Bio and QIMR Berghofer Collaborating to Develop Next Generation 'Off-the-Shelf' T Cell Immunotherapy for NPC and Other Diseases
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 19, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:ATRA), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing meaningful therapies for patients with severe and life-threatening diseases that have been underserved by scientific innovation, today announced that its collaborating investigators at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute ('QIMR Berghofer') presented positive Phase 1 clinical data for autologous targeted Epstein Barr Virus (EBV)-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (EBV-CTLs) at the AACR Annual Meeting, being held in New Orleans, LA, April 16-20. EBV-associated NPC accounts for approximately 6,000 cases annually in the US and EU combined and approximately 80,000 cases worldwide.
According to clinical results reported at the AACR meeting, 20 recurrent/metastatic NPC patients who received autologous targeted EBV-CTLs showed a median overall survival since the time of recruitment of 479 days. Additionally, nine patients treated by QIMR Berghofer had no radiographic or minimal residual disease (N/MRD). More than half of these patients remained free of progression at the time of analysis, with three patients exceeding three years. These N/MRD patients had received a median of two prior treatments of chemotherapy and seven of these nine patients had experienced prior relapses. The therapy was generally well-tolerated in the 29 patients with two patients experiencing possibly related grade 3 adverse events.
'These clinical findings provide initial data supporting the potential of EBV-targeted CTLs in a difficult to treat solid tumor that has a poor prognosis and extend Atara's development programs beyond hematologic malignancies,' commented Chris Haqq M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer of Atara Bio. 'The data also demonstrate the utility of the QIMR Berghofer technology, which we are leveraging to develop a next-generation allogeneic product for NPC and other EBV-associated diseases. We believe that an allogeneic approach has important advantages, including the potentially enhanced immune effector function of healthy donor cells, improved manufacturability, and rapid availability.'
In October 2015, Atara Bio and QIMR Berghofer entered into exclusive license and research agreements under which Atara Bio has exclusive, worldwide rights to develop and commercialize allogeneic, or 'off-the-shelf,' CTLs targeted to multiple epitopes of EBV utilizing technology developed by QIMR Berghofer. The QIMR Berghofer technology complements Atara Bio's ongoing CTL development efforts by selectively targeting specific epitopes and antigens of EBV that are associated with NPC and other diseases. Additional applications for which the technology may be appropriate include the treatment of gastric cancer, as well as certain autoimmune disorders, such as multiple sclerosis. In addition, Atara Bio has an option to license the autologous targeted EBV-CTL product candidate from QIMR Berghofer.
To obtain the full text of the abstract, please visit the AACR website link here. The details of the presentation are as follows:
Title: Therapeutic and Prophylactic AdE1-LMPpoly-Based Adoptive T cell Immunotherapy for Epstein-Barr Virus-Associated Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
HERE's the release
