Celyad Oncology Reports First Quarter 2023 Financial Results and Recent Business Highlights

Regulatory News:

Celyad Oncology (Euronext & Nasdaq: CYAD) (the “Company”), a biotechnology company focused on innovative technologies for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies, today reports its financial results for the first quarter of 2023 and provides an update on recent business developments.

“Celyad Oncology is now fully committed to leveraging its expertise, know-how and intellectual property (IP) portfolio with the goal of providing innovative solutions to overcome the current limitations of CAR T-cell approaches. We have generated exiting data from our short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-based multiplexing platform, which highlights the versatility and adaptability of the technology. We also have made significant progress with our dual CAR program, for which we anticipate sharing an update at international conferences in the upcoming months,” commented Georges Rawadi, Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

Corporate highlights

• Georges Rawadi was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the Company

Operational highlights

• shRNA multiplexing platform: Data validating our shRNA multiplexing approach, which allows to down-regulate several genes simultaneously, were presented at the World Oncology Cell Therapy Congress in Boston, US (April 25-26, 2023):
  • We developed a microRNA (miRNA)-based multiplex shRNA platform designed for easy, efficient, and tunable knock-down regulation of up to four target genes simultaneously;
  • Furthermore, we showed that the down-regulation of each target gene could be fine-tuned, from a moderate down-regulation up to achieving a functional knock-out, all without the need of gene editing and thus avoiding associated potential safety issues;
  • The plug-and-play design of our platform is designed to allow for swapping each target sequence without affecting performance, streamlining the generation of engineered adoptive T-cell therapies; and
  • To demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, we have been able to simultaneous knock down in CAR T-cells several genes involved in different cellular processes such as alloreactivity (CD3ζ), cell persistence (β2M, CIITA), T-cell exhaustion (PD-1, LAG-3), or ligand-induced apoptosis (CD95).
• NKG2D-based CAR T-cells: Results from the hematological arm of the Phase I THINK trial have been published in The Lancet Haematology journal (Lancet Haematol. 2023 Mar;10(3):e191-e202). Data from the 16 patients treated in the dose-escalation segment provided proof-of-concept of targeting NKG2D ligands by CAR T-cell therapy. Further development of NKG2D-based CAR T-cells are warranted, potentially via combinatorial approaches or further CAR optimization to improve anti-tumor efficacy; and
• We continue to progress on the development of NKG2D-based dual CARs and B7-H6-targeting CAR T-cells, with the aim of broadening the landscape of CAR T-cell therapies.

Financial highlights – First quarter 2023 financial review