Cullinan Therapeutics Announces Strategic Expansion into Autoimmune Diseases - Seite 2

On April 8, 2024, the Journal of Experimental Medicine published a Found in Translation article highlighting the potential advantages of CD19-directed T cell engagers to be superior to CD19 CAR-T cell engaging antibodies relative to CD19 CAR-T cells for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.²

Clinical Observations from CLN-978 B-NHL Phase 1 Trial

Clinical observations from three patients treated in a Phase 1 dose escalation trial of patients with B-NHL show that CLN-978 was clinically active at the initial starting dose of 30 μg administered subcutaneously once weekly. Two of the three patients experienced objective clinical benefit including one patient who experienced a complete response. Grade 1 cytokine release syndrome occurred in two patients and no patients experienced immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome. Other adverse events were low-grade, manageable, or mechanistically based (e.g. transient lymphopenia after the first dose only)​. Of the two patients with detectable B cells at baseline, both patients experienced rapid, deep, and sustained B cell depletion after administration of CLN-978. These data show that CLN-978 can deplete peripheral B cells and demonstrate clinical activity in a tissue resident disease at a dose with a favorable safety profile.

Corporate Name Change to Cullinan Therapeutics

The corporate name change to Cullinan Therapeutics reflects the company’s transformation as it pursues new indications for autoimmune diseases and continues to advance its clinical-stage oncology pipeline. The new corporate name represents both the expanded therapeutic focus area and Cullinan Therapeutics’ vision to evolve to a commercial-stage biotech company. The company’s common stock will continue to trade under its current ticker symbol “CGEM”. Along with the new name, the company will adopt a new logo and will change its corporate website from www.cullinanoncology.com to  www.cullinantherapeutics.com. 

“Today’s announcements represent a major step forward for Cullinan Therapeutics. Our ethos is to pursue the best science for patients by matching the right target with the right modality, and we believe that CLN-978 could offer a convenient modality and potentially disease-modifying treatment for patients with autoimmune diseases where current treatments often only address symptoms, rather than the underlying disease itself,” said Nadim Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer of Cullinan Therapeutics. “Our expertise in drug development and our robust financial resources, now with an additional $280 million through our recent financing activity, position us to execute and expand the development of CLN-978. We also plan to deliver multiple data catalysts from our ongoing oncology clinical programs throughout 2024. I look forward to continuing our positive momentum and I am proud of our team working relentlessly to deliver for patients in need.”