Nantes, France and Seoul, Korea, June 21, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OGD2 Pharma SAS, a biotechnology company developing innovative anti-cancer therapies targeting the O-acetylated form of the GD2 ganglioside (OAcGD2), today announces a collaboration with Green Cross LabCell (GCLC), a subsidiary of Green Cross Corporation, a leading South Korean biopharmaceutical company that delivers life-saving and life-sustaining protein therapeutics and vaccines.
With this collaboration, OGD2 Pharma and GCLC will explore the potential of targeting NK-cells to the OAcGD2 antigen using humanized antibody and chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) for fighting against solid tumors.
"Thanks to this collaboration OGD2 Pharma speeds-up the development of its anti-OAcGD2 CAR platform. We highly value Green Cross leadership in allogenic NK-cell therapy and their proven ability to develop and to market cell therapy products" said Jean-Marc Le Doussal, President at OGD2 Pharma. "OGD2 Pharma will continue building strategic partnerships with academic groups and private companies in other fields of cell therapies." he added.
Bok-Soo Park, Chief Executive Officer of Green Cross LabCell commented "To work with OGD2 Pharma as our partner for the development and future commercialization of cancer immunotherapy products targeting the OAcGD2 antigen is exciting, given their world-leading expertise in cancer immunotherapies against solid tumor. This collaboration underscores our commitment to maximise the value of our technologies and accelerate their progress to the market through partnering with industry leaders. We chose to work with OGD2 Pharma as we believe they are best positioned to accelerate development of these programs and are fully committed to their success. We look forward to working with the team at OGD2 Pharma to bring desperately needed new treatment options to cancer to patients all around the world".
About Greencross Labcell: www.greencross.com
Green Cross LabCell is a subsidiary of Green Cross Corp, a leading Korean pharmaceutical company with its headquarters in Seoul. Green Cross Corp. has annual sales of more than $1 billion across 14 marketed prescription products. The Company has been actively developing a number of new technologies and products in the emerging cell therapy industry. Its subsidiary, Green Cross LabCell is focused on clinical development of MG4101, a random donor PBMC-derived, ex vivo expanded and activated NK cell product in a number of Phase II clinical trials in Korea, as well as developing next generation gene-modified NK cell therapeutics. Green Cross LabCell operates its own GMP facilities in Korea for production of NK cell based therapeutics. Its proprietary production platform enables allogeneic supply of therapeutic NK cells for multiple clinical trials. This technology platform holds the promise to dramatically reduce the cost of gene-modified cell therapies for cancer, while also aiding the quality control and industrial scale production of NK cell products.
About OGD2 Pharma: www.ogd2pharma.com
OGD2 Pharma SAS, headquartered in Nantes, France, is a pre-clinical stage privately-held biotechnology company. Our mission is to research, develop and commercialize, with pharmaceutical partners, safe and efficacious cancer immunotherapies targeting the O-acetylated form of the GD2 ganglioside (OAcGD2). Pipeline includes OGD201 humanized monoclonal antibody (EMA Orphan Drug Designation for neuroblastoma), chimeric antigen receptors (CAR), antibody drug conjugates and companion diagnostic products.
About O-acetylated-GD2
As its first cousin GD2, the OAcGD2 glycolipid is expressed at high copy numbers in the membrane of tumor cells in many types of pediatric cancers (such as neuroblastoma) and adult cancers (such as glioblastoma, melanoma, sarcoma, breast cancer, etc.) and on cancer stem cells. Remarkably, and by contrast to GD2, OAcGD2 is not expressed by normal nerves and brain tissues.
About MG4101
MG4101 is a clinical stage cell-based product developed by Green Cross LabCell based on ex vivo expanded and activated NK cells derived from peripheral blood mononuclear cells from random healthy donors. MG4101 has completed a Phase I study in patients with a variety of terminal stage solid tumours and recurrent lymphoma patients (NCT01212341, Cancer Immunol Res. 2016 Mar;4(3):215-24.), a Phase II study in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after resection (NCT02008929), and a Phase II study in paediatric solid tumours (NCT01807468). Another Phase II study in HCC after transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) will be start in Q3 2016. MG4101 and its associated production process provide the basis for the next generation of NK cell therapeutics being jointly developed by Green Cross LabCell and OGD2 Pharma.
Contacts: OGD2 Pharma
Business Development Alliance Management
Farid Bouzidi Samuel Salot
bouzidi@ogd2pharma.com salot@ogd2pharma.com
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