Tuesday, January 27, 2015
US clinical-stage biopharma company Kite Pharma (Nasdaq: KITE), focused on developing engineered autologous T cell therapy (eACT) products for the treatment of cancer, has expanded its agreement with Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center to research and develop novel approaches to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, the technology underlying Kite's most advanced programs in cancer immunotherapy.
Under the agreement, Kite will collaborate with Zelig Eshhar, the leading pioneer in CAR T cell research and Chair of Immunology Research within the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center's Division of R&D.
"Zelig's award-winning research has been at the center of CAR-T cell programs currently advancing in clinical studies….We believe this collaboration will facilitate continued development and advancement of novel, efficacious, and more selective CAR-T cell products for various tumor types," said Arie Belldegrun, Kite Pharma's president and chief executive.
Prof Eshhar commented: "Originally, my research had addressed the question of whether T cells can be programmed to effectively recognize and eliminate cancerous cells and to solve the central problem of how and why cancer cells escape the immune system. Now, we believe that we can further enhance this platform technology to develop a whole new generation of CAR-T cell products for many tumor types. I look forward to the progress of this program."
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