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Coimune, a U.S. joint venture between Scm Life Science (298060, CEO Lee Byung-gun) and Genexine (095700, CEO Sung Young-chul), they attended the American Society of Blood (ASH), the world's largest blood-related conference, on the 7th (local time), and released the interim results of phase 1 and 2 clinical trials of acute lymphocytic leukemia of the pipeline type "Carsik-CD19" under development.

The contents of the announcement include that it showed a significant improvement effect in the majority of the treatment group and that side effects were lowered, attracting great attention from people in the pharmaceutical and bio industry.

Phase 1/2 clinical trials targeted a total of 24 patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia, of which 15 patients (4 children, 11 adults) were included in the interim result.

The therapeutic effect of allogeneic CARCIK-CD19 was confirmed in most patients, and in some patients, CAR-T, an immune cell, proliferated up to 70%. Seven out of 9 patients who received the high dose showed a complete remission (no cancer cells found) on the 28th day, raising expectations for the therapeutic effect.

In addition, most CAR-T-based immuno-cancer drugs have been developed for children. On the other hand, CARCIK-CD19 announced a positive response from adults in the interim results of phase 1/2 clinical trials.

Furthermore, according to the presentation, CARCIK-CD19 also showed significant improvement in phase 1/2 clinical trials compared to conventional CAR-T treatments. For up to 9 months, patients showed a high level of safety, and there was no expression and neurotoxicity of GVHD, dose-limiting toxicity (DLT), and low incidence of cytokine release syndrome, the biggest side effects of CAR-T treatments, was also confirmed.

CARCIK-CD19 under development by Coimunee is an immuno-cancer drug based on CAR-T cells. CAR-T cell therapy targeting antigen CD19 has been widely recognized for its effectiveness with permission from the U.S. FDA in 2017, but is limitedly used due to expensive treatment costs, concerns over side effects such as cytokine release syndrome, and difficulties in logistics by self-treatment. Currently, the price of CAR-T treatments is about 400 million won to 500 million won per administration.

In particular, CARCIK-CD19 differentiates from other CAR-T cell therapies by utilizing Coimune's unique patent technology, Sleeping Beauty Transfer Factor System, and homogeneous cytokine-induced murder cell technology. When the technology development is completed, the anticancer effect is superior to that of existing CAR-T treatments, and a new concept of CAR-T treatments is expected to be created based on low treatment costs and low side effects.