Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals PLC Announces CBR Expanded to Treatment of Cancer

Chimeric Bait Receptor-programmed macrophages show promise for treatment of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / November 27, 2023 / Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plc (LSE:HEMO), the biopharmaceutical group developing new therapies and treatments for blood diseases, is pleased to announce that its Chimeric Bait Receptor ("CBR") platform can potentially be used in the treatment of cancers, in addition to the viral diseases extensively reported by the Company to date.

The Company has demonstrated that human macrophages, a type of immune cells, programmed with a purpose designed CBR, were able to eliminate Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma ("NHL") derived cells with high efficiency in vitro. This result suggests that the Company may be able to develop an efficient treatment for people suffering from relapsed and/or refractory stage III/IV metastasized NHL. In addition, based on data derived from its testing of CBR in connection with NHL, the Company has reason to believe that the newly designed CBR construct can be adapted to target several solid tumours such as epithelial ovarian cancer as well as certain carcinomas.

The Company has been able to speed up its R&D efforts dramatically by using Artificial Intelligence ("AI") based protein structure/interaction simulations and in-house synthesis of messenger RNA ("mRNA"). AI tools allow the Company's scientists to triage variants of CBR constructs rapidly in order to select those with the greatest likelihood of success, while in-house mRNA synthesis facilitates the building of CBR constructs in a matter of just days.

Moreover, the Company has previously reported that it is testing CBR against live infectious SARS-Cov-2, the virus causing COVID-19. The Company has received preliminary results of tests of CBR against this live infectious virus. The results show that human macrophage cells programmed with CBR against SARS-CoV-2 are effective in in vitro experiments. These tests are being conducted by an external team of scientists in a biological level three ("BSL-3") facility. Additional work will be conducted to further optimize the method of application of cells programmed with CBR, as well as to obtain results in vivo (i.e., in a live animal model).