It’s been a stellar day on the market for cell therapy specialist Chimeric Therapeutics (ASX:CHM) as the company posts ‘positive’ in vitro data for its CHM 1301 product in ovarian and pancreatic cancers. 

The $16 million market capitalisation drug developer studied CHM 1301 in preclinical lab models of human ovarian and pancreatic cancer and observed ‘highly promising’ efficacy when it came to cell killing. 

Chimeric says in ovarian cancer, cell killing was increased by up to 260% when compared to first-generation CHM 0201 cells, while in pancreatic cancer, cell killing was increased by up to 300% compared to CHM 0201 cells.

Essentially, this means CHM 1301 has demonstrated the potential to address unmet needs in solid tumour types beyond glioblastoma, which is the current target cancer for Chimeric’s CHM 1101 CAR T cell therapy. 

Chimeric is now advancing CHM 1301 to the next stage of preclinical development.

Shares in Chimeric Therapeutics have spiked 24.14% to $0.036 as of 2:25pm on 23 November 2023. 

CEO and Managing Director Jennifer Chow says CHM 1301 has demonstrated ‘rapid success’ so far. 

“We believe this work is highly impactful as it demonstrated the synergy of the assets that currently exist in Chimeric’s portfolio, the ability for Chimeric to expand into new disease areas, and the potential for enhanced efficacy with an off-the-shelf version of our CHM 1101 CAR.”

“We believe this work is highly impactful as it demonstrated the synergy of the assets that currently exist in Chimeric’s portfolio”

CHM 1301 combines Chimeric’s CHM 1101 CAR T cell therapy with its CHM 0201 natural killer (NK) cell platform to create the next generation of CLTX CAR NK cell therapy. 

As part of its plans to advance the product to the next stage of development, Chimeric will now look to use its armoured NK cell platform, CHM 0301, to further enhance the cell potency and resistance against an ‘immunosuppressive solid tumour microenvironment’ of CHM 1301. 

Chimeric’s CHM 1101, CHM 2101, and CHM 0201 cell therapy products are in various stages of early clinical and pre-clinical trials for the treatment of glioblastoma, colorectal cancer, gastric cancer, and acute myeloid leukemia. 

Write to Joshua Smith at Mining.com.au

Images: Chimeric Therapeutics