Introducing Our News in Brief
Welcome to the
Glycostem
NEWSBRIEF
, Issue 1. Periodically, we’ll share updates on what’s happening with our team, our technology and our company. Not a subscriber? You can sign up
here.
FORWARD
OSS, Netherlands — Netherlands-based Glycostem, momentum building with a series of favourable clinical and corporate developments, is nearer its goal of achieving product approval for its off-the-shelf natural cancer-killer cell immunotherapy by 2021.
To date evidenced as being completely safe and free of side-effects, when administered to a cancer patient Natural Killer (NK) cells hunt down and destroy cancer cells, while completely bypassing normal healthy cells.
After a March 2017 phase I clinical trial delivered solid safety data and strong indications of efficacy in its naked NK-cell technology, Glycostem built onto its already substantial developmental momentum, further gearing up for its pivotal Q1 2019 trial.
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GLYCOSTEM CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE FIELD OF NK CELL RESEARCH
Glycostem works at the cutting edge of cellular immunotherapy, with ongoing contributions to the field in terms of new knowledge and data. A recent example includes new findings in NK-cell activation and functions, represented by the just released ebook, '
Tailoring NK Cell Receptor-Ligand Interactions: an Art in Evolution', edited by Gianfranco Pittari, Antoine Toubert and Ulrike Koehl. The research which served as the basis of several articles was initiated by the NaturImmun ITN Marie Curie network program, in which Glycostem actively participated from 2013-2017.
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MOVING DAY: GLYCOSTEM EXPANDS TO NEW FACILITY
On 1 March 2018, its funding goals fully achieved, Glycostem relocated to its new facilities at Pivot Park life sciences industrial park, Oss, Netherlands. Collectively comprising nearly 500 square meters, the premises include the company’s newly renovated and equipped laboratory, production facility and administrative HQ.
The facilities, equipped with new state-of-the-art R&D and production equipment, were completely refurbished and customised for Glycostem’s particularly specialized applications. In preparation for future expansion, Glycostem also retains an option on an additional space of about the same size.
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MANAGEMENT MOMENTUM IN ADVANCE OF PIVOTAL TRIAL
After March 2017 phase I clinical trial delivered solid safety data and strong indications of efficacy in its naked NK-cell technology, to further accelerate product development Glycostem moved to expand its management team. Its members, along with the company’s scientists, technicians and administrative team, are tracking to achieve GMP production certification and to initiate pivotal clinical trials in relapsed and refractory AML patients by Q1 2019.
Troels Jordansen
, Glycostem’s CEO, says, “Being a member of the Glycostem management team during this highly productive developmental phase is, to say the least, a very interesting endeavour. We see ourselves as being at the forefront in the battle to make cancer a chronic disease.”
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IN THE MEDIA
BioInformant
excerpt:
"Glycostem is a 10-year old clinical stage cellular immunotherapy company based in The Netherlands. The uniqueness around Glycostem, beyond that it is a privately funded company with strong phase I safety clinical trial data, is that it may become the first company with an allogeneic off-the- shelf product (oNKord®). This would potentially position NK cell technology to leapfrog CAR-T cell products, due to a safer profile, lower production costs, off-the- shelf status and positive clinical trial data."
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More: Interview with
Troels Jordansen,
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LUPUS VENTURES TAKES STAKE IN GLYCOSTEM
Netherlands-based
LUPUS Ventures
has invested €3 million in Glycostem, furthering the company’s expansion and ongoing technological development. Glycostem will channel this funding primarily to production optimisation and automation.
The LUPUS investment brought closer to realisation a primary goal; having in place a completely closed production system. This would in turn allow Glycostem to leverage EMA’s latest update to ATMP manufacturing, thereby reducing the expense of production implementation.
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NK-CELL TRANSPLANT VETERAN JOINS GLYCOSTEM
On 1 March of 2018
Volker Huppert
joined Glycostem Therapeutics as its Chief Development Officer. Volker assumed responsibility for overall direction of the company’s collateral programs of development and production. Prior to joining Glycostem, for 22 years Volker served with Miltenyi Biotec, where he was responsible for product development in the field of NK-cell and stem cell transplantation procedures. (Above Volker is pictured in the Glycostem lab at work on a stem cell-generating device he developed along with his team.)
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CLINICAL DATA RECAP: PEER REVIEWED PHASE 1 TRIAL
In August of 2017, Clinical Cancer Research published a report on the positive outcome of Glycostem’s NK-killer cells phase I clinical trial, which was carried out at Radboud University Center in the Netherlands.
Ten elderly and fragile AML patients were treated in the dose escalating trial, the primary endpoint of which was safety. The goal was achieved with no exhibited side effects; not even at the highest levels of infusion.
Importantly, the treated patients’ duration of survival significantly exceeded the expected duration of survival in the general patient population. The trial results built on Glycostem’s already considerable developmental momentum as the company moves on to the next clinical stage.
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CORPORATE NAME CHANGE
In early 2018 Glycostem’s official corporate name of record was changed from IPD Developments B.V. to Glycostem Therapeutics B.V.
Troels Jordansen, Glycostem’s CEO, explained, “For years we have been known as Glycostem, but as a matter of record we were IPD Developments B.V. To simplify things and to clarify our identification as a company and a technology, we are now Glycostem Therapeutics B.V.”
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