Increasing BCMA Surface Expression and Reduced Soluble BCMA Levels with Gamma Secretase Inhibitor Niro­gace­stat May Enhance Clinical Benefit in Com­bi­na­tion with PBCAR269A, an Allogeneic BCMA-Targeted CAR T Cell Product

Durham, NC and Stamford, CT (Press Release) – Pre­ci­sion BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: DTIL), a clin­i­cal stage bio­technol­ogy devel­op­ing allo­geneic CAR T and in vivo gene correction ther­a­pies with its ARCUS® genome edit­ing plat­form, and Spring­Works Thera­peutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: SWTX), a clin­i­cal-stage bio­pharma­ceu­tical com­pany focused on devel­op­ing life-changing med­i­cines for patients with severe rare dis­eases and can­cer, to­day an­nounced they have entered into a clin­i­cal trial col­lab­o­ration agree­ment. Per the agree­ment, PBCAR269A, Pre­ci­sion BioSciences’ wholly-owned inves­ti­ga­tional allo­geneic chi­meric an­ti­gen re­cep­tor (CAR) T cell ther­apy can­di­date targeting B-cell maturation an­ti­gen (BCMA), will be eval­u­ated in com­bi­na­tion …

Seattle, WA (Press Release) – Juno Thera­peutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: JUNO), a bio­pharma­ceu­tical com­pany devel­op­ing inno­va­tive cellular immuno­therapies for the treat­ment of cancer, today announced three license agree­ments to ad­vance its pro­gram in multiple myeloma using gamma secretase inhibitors (GSIs) in com­bi­na­tion with BCMA-directed CAR T cells.

Gamma secretase is an enzyme that cleaves a set of transmembrane proteins, in­clud­ing BCMA. Multiple publications have shown that treat­ment with GSIs can in­crease surface ex­pres­sion of BCMA on tumors, particularly multiple myeloma. Increased cell surface BCMA may in­crease potency of a BCMA-directed CAR T ther­apy¹.

“BCMA …