Gamida Cell Presents New Data on Allogeneic Stem Cell Therapy Omidubicel and Natural Killer (NK) Cell Therapy Candidate GDA-201 at Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting

Data further characterize the mechanism for Gamida Cell’s proprietary nicotinamide (NAM) technology’s expansion and enhancement of cells

BOSTON, Nov. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gamida Cell Ltd. (Nasdaq: GMDA), a cell therapy pioneer working to turn cells into powerful therapeutics, today shared new data on the impact of the company’s proprietary nicotinamide (NAM) technology on its allogeneic stem cell therapy omidubicel and investigational natural killer (NK) cell therapy candidate GDA-201 at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s (SITC) Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA.

Both omidubicel and GDA-201 are powered by Gamida Cell’s proprietary NAM technology, which enhances and expands cells to create potentially curative cell therapies for patients with cancer. Omidubicel was approved under the brand name Omisirge (omidubicel-onlv) by the U.S. FDA in April 2023 for allogeneic stem cell transplant; GDA-201 is in Phase 1 study for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NCT05296525). Data on the first three cohorts of the Phase 1 study of GDA-201 were recently reported.

“The data presented at SITC further our understanding of the effect of NAM in enhancing and expanding cells,” said Ronit Simantov, MD, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer of Gamida Cell. “Our data characterize the unique cellular composition of omidubicel, which is enriched in myeloid populations and dendritic cells, providing a potential mechanism for rapid engraftment and immune reconstitution, and is associated with lower infection rates observed in patients transplanted with omidubicel. Similarly, our data on GDA-201 demonstrate the unique, active phenotype of our NK cells expanded in the presence of NAM.”

Additional details are as follows:

Title: Significant myeloid and dendritic cellular enrichment of omidubicel graft suggests fast homeostatic proliferation of lymphoid populations 
Abstract number: 336 
Presenting author: Dima Yackoubov 
Time: Saturday, November 4, 2023, 9:00 a.m. – 8:30 p.m. PDT 
Location: Exhibit Halls A and B1 

• Highlights: In this study, immunophenotyping was used to evaluate and characterize the cellular populations in the cultured fraction (CF) and non-cultured fraction (NF) of omidubicel (manufactured with Gamida Cell’s proprietary NAM technology) compared to standard umbilical cord blood (UCB). Manufacturing significantly increased the total nucleated cells (1.2-1.6-fold) and myeloid cells (2.2-3.6-fold) in the omidubicel CF compared to UCB. In addition, high resolution analysis of the CF showed a 25-62-fold increase in myeloid populations and dendritic cells and an absence of mature lymphoid cell populations. The NF was found to contain 50-70% fewer total with a comparable percentage of T cells, B cells, NK cells and NK-T cells to UCB. The results of this phenotypic characterization of omidubicel provide a potential mechanism for the rapid engraftment and immune reconstitution observed in transplanted patients.