Lineage Cell Therapeutics Announces Early Exercise of Option with Cancer Research UK for Immuno-Oncology Cell Therapy Program

Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc. a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel cell therapies for unmet medical needs, announced that Cancer Research UK’s Commercial Partnerships has permitted Lineage to conduct an early exercise of its option to acquire data from Cancer Research UK’s ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial of VAC2 in non-small cell lung cancer (NCT03371485), and develop an allogeneic dendritic cell therapy platform. Lineage will assume responsibility for further development of the VAC2 product candidate as well as future development opportunities derived from the VAC platform, while Cancer Research UK concludes the ongoing trial. This decision was based on an early review of the data collected by Cancer Research UK in the VAC2 trial under a clinical trial and option agreement. In addition, Cancer Research UK will provide input on the potential use of VAC in the infectious disease space to develop a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19. Cancer Research UK is the world’s largest cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.

“Clinical data recently collected by Cancer Research UK in the ongoing trial of VAC2 has shown peripheral immunogenicity in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, providing validation of the underlying mechanism of using allogeneic dendritic cells to present antigens to the body’s immune system. Evidence of immunogenicity was a key clinical signal which was necessary before we would consider taking over the program,” stated Brian M. Culley, Lineage CEO. “This encouraging evidence builds upon earlier clinical studies of VAC which supported not only the safety of the VAC platform, but also evidence that patients developed antigen-specific T cell immune responses. We are excited to assume responsibility for advancing this promising program and move Lineage more aggressively into the field of cancer immunotherapy. Given the scientific evidence supporting our approach, the opportunity to also apply our VAC program to SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development was another positive consideration and we are pleased that Cancer Research UK facilitated this decision. Presenting a viral antigen will require transferring the program from Cancer Research UK’s Centre for Drug Development to our cGMP facility, scaling the manufacturing process, and eventually submitting an IND for clinical testing. We also will be evaluating opportunities for non-dilutive funding for this new initiative.”

Dr. Nigel Blackburn, Cancer Research UK’s Director of the Centre for Drug Development, said: “We are pleased that our development efforts on the VAC2 program over the past several years have generated initial evidence of an immune response in cancer patients and have resulted in an early exercise of the option by Lineage. We are excited to transfer the next phase of development to our partners and to assist the expansion of those efforts into SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development and other areas with significant unmet need.”