Shanghai, China and New York, NY (Press Release) – Cellular Biomedicine Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBMG) ("CBMG" or the "Company"), a bio­pharma­ceu­tical firm engaged in the devel­op­ment of immuno­therapies for cancer and stem cell ther­a­pies for degenerative diseases, today announces the initiation of patient recruitment to sup­port the study of anti-BCMA CAR-T ther­apy targeting re­lapsed and refractory multiple myeloma in China.

"China has seen a sub­stan­tial in­­crease in the in­ci­dence of multiple myeloma. As a drug devel­op­ment com­pany, BCMA is the first of multiple assets that CBMG is ad­vanc­ing amongst our on­col­ogy pipe­line beyond our col­lab­o­ration with a global leader in cell ther­apy," commented Tony (Bizuo) Liu, Chief Executive Officer of the Company. "We plan to provide updates in the near future on the progress of our other pro­pri­e­tary tech­nolo­gies, in­­clud­ing anti-CD22 and anti-CD20 CAR-T targeting re­lapsed acute lympho­blastic leukemia (ALL) and diffuse large B-cell lym­phoma (DLBCL) patients post anti-CD19 CAR-T treat­ment, alpha fetoprotein T-cell re­cep­tor (AFP-TCR-T) for hepato­cellular carci­noma, and next generation tumor infiltrating lym­pho­cytes (TIL) for the treat­ment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and other solid tumor indi­ca­tions. We hope to be able to provide expeditious, safe and effective ther­a­pies to cancer patients who cur­rently have limited treat­ment options."

About the Study

This Phase I clin­i­cal study will enroll 22 patients to eval­u­ate the safety and efficacy of C-CAR088 (anti-BCMA chi­meric an­ti­gen re­cep­tor T-cell ther­apy) in patients with re­lapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma.

About Multiple Myeloma in China

It is esti­mated that there are 27,800 new cases of multiple myeloma, a cancer derived from plasma cells, diag­nosed in China each year. With the acceleration of the aging process in China, it is pre­dicted that multiple myeloma, with a rapid growth in in­ci­dence, will be­come one of the more sig­nif­i­cant diseases that affect people's health in the country. (Source: Blood Cancer J. 2014 Aug 15;4:e239. doi: 10.1038/bcj.2014.55)

About Cellular Biomedicine Group

Cellular Biomedicine Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBMG) develops pro­pri­e­tary cell ther­a­pies for the treat­ment of cancer and degenerative diseases. We conduct immuno-oncology and stem cell clin­i­cal trials in China using prod­ucts from our integrated GMP laboratory. Our GMP facilities in China, consisting of 12 independent cell pro­duc­tion lines, are designed and man­aged according to both China and U.S. GMP standards. Our Shanghai facility in­cludes a "Joint Laboratory of Cell Therapy" with GE Health­care and a "Joint Cell Therapy Technology Innovation and Application Center" with Thermo Fisher Scientific, whose part­ner­ships focus on im­prov­ing manu­fac­tur­ing processes for cell ther­a­pies. The CBMG pipe­line in­cludes pre­clin­i­cal com­pounds targeting CD20-, CD22- and B-cell maturation an­ti­gen (BCMA)-specific CAR-T com­pounds, and T-cell re­cep­tor (TCR) and tumor infiltrating lym­pho­cyte (TIL) tech­nolo­gies. A Phase IIb trial in China for Rejoin® autologous human adipose-derived mes­en­chymal progenitor cell (haMPC) for the treat­ment of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) as well as a Phase I trial in China for AlloJoin™ (CBMG's "Off-the-Shelf" haMPC) for the treat­ment of KOA are ongoing. CBMG is in­cluded in the broad-market Russell 3000® Index and the small-cap Russell 2000® Index, and the Loncar China BioPharma index. To learn more about CBMG, please visit www.cellbiomedgroup.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release relating to plans, strategies, trends, specific activities or investments, and other state­ments that are not descriptions of historical facts and may be for­ward-looking state­ments within the meaning of the Private Se­cu­ri­ties Lit­i­ga­tion Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Se­cu­ri­ties Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Se­cu­ri­ties Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking in­for­ma­tion is in­her­ently subject to risks and un­cer­tain­ties, and actual results could differ ma­teri­ally from those cur­rently antic­i­pated due to a number of factors, which in­clude those re­gard­ing our ability to implement our plans, strategies and objectives for future opera­tions, in­­clud­ing regu­la­tory approval of our IND appli­ca­tions, our plan to configure part of our Shanghai facility with GE Healthcare's FlexFactory plat­form, our ability to execute on our obli­ga­tions under the terms of our licensing and col­lab­o­ration arrangement with Novartis, our ability to execute on proposed new prod­ucts, services or devel­op­ment thereof, results of our clin­i­cal research and devel­op­ment, regu­la­tory infrastructure governing cell ther­apy and cellular bio­pharma­ceu­ticals, our ability to enter into agree­ments with any nec­es­sary manu­fac­tur­ing, mar­ket­ing and/or distribution partners for pur­poses of com­mer­cial­iza­tion, our ability to seek intellectual property rights for our prod­uct can­di­dates, com­pe­ti­tion in the industry in which we operate, over­all mar­ket con­di­tions, any state­ments or assump­tions under­lying any of the foregoing and other risks detailed from time to time in CBMG's reports filed with the Se­cu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion, quarterly reports on form 10-Q, current reports on form 8-K and annual reports on form 10-K. Forward-looking state­ments may be identified by terms such as "may," "will," "expects," "plans," "intends," "estimates," "potential," or "con­tinue," or similar terms or the neg­a­tive of these terms. Although CBMG believes the ex­pec­ta­tions reflected in the for­ward-looking state­ments are reason­able, it cannot guar­an­tee that future results, levels of activity, per­for­mance or achieve­ments will be obtained. CBMG does not have any obli­ga­tion to update these for­ward-looking state­ments other than as required by law. 

Source: Cellular Biomedicine Group.