Achilles Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company committed to the development of personalized cancer immunotherapies, has reportedly attained the approval of its Clinical Trial Application to perform a Phase I/II study on patients with melanoma by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. As per trusted sources, the clinical trial will focus on using clonal neoantigen which would target T cells in patients suffering from metastatic or recurrent melanoma.
Dr. Iraj Ali, Chief Executive Officer of Achilles Therapeutics, was quoted saying that it is extremely inspiring that the company has received its second CTA approval in weeks. The company anticipates to introduce this potentially transformative treatment option to the clinics later this year, Ali added.
Professor James Larkin, Reader at the Institute of Cancer Research and Consultant Medical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden said that the Achilles’ approach to leveraging the leading science in tumor evolution to battling solid tumors with cNeT has the ability to change the immune-oncology space and create life-changing treatment options to patients. He further mentioned that the medical fraternity is looking forward to the commencement of the clinical development.
Presently, Achilles is designing personalized T cell therapies for solid tumors which would target clonal neoantigens, protein markers that are different in each patient and exist on the surface of all cancer cells, cited sources familiar with the process.
According to a press release by Achilles Therapeutics, the company will be using its PELEUS bioinformatics platform to detect clonal neoantigens from each patient’s inimitable tumor profile present on every cancer cell. It would further use its proprietary process to construct T cells which are exquisitely targeted at a particular set of clonal neoantigens that exist on all cancer cells except healthy cells. This will help reduce the risk of new mutations triggering therapeutic resistance and immune evasion and enable personalized treatments to target and abolish tumors without affecting any healthy tissues, the press release stated.
The study is expecting its first patient in late 2019, reported sources.
