A brain cancer therapy developed by a Birmingham biopharmaceutical company has been approved for a patent.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a patent to Incysus Therapeutics for its gamma-delta T cell immunotherapy for brain cancer. The patent covers the treatment of brain cancer with the combination of certain chemotherapies and a genetically-modified gamma-delta T cell.
The company also plans to begin Phase 1 clinical trials of its two lead programs later this year. The first program is will treat newly diagnosed cases of glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. The second program will treat leukemia and lymphoma patients undergoing stem cell transplantation.
This treatment combines chemotherapy with the gamma-delta T cells, which are genetically-engineered to resist chemotherapy-induced cell death, allowing the cells to attack the tumor at the time that it is most vulnerable. It’s the first gamma-delta T cell product cleared for a trial by the FDA, and it will allow the body’s immune system to also join in the attack on the tumor.
Incysus, formed in 2016, just this year announced it had raised $10 million in Series A financing. The company advances the work of its co-founder and chief scientific officer, Lawrence S. Lamb. Lamb was previously a professor and laboratory director at UAB’s School of Medicine and was working with H. Trent Spencer, an associate professor of pediatrics at Emory University, when the drug resistant therapy was developed.