BOSTON & MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gamida Cell Ltd. (Nasdaq: GMDA), a leading cellular and immune therapeutics company, and Be The Match BioTherapies®, a subsidiary of the National Marrow Donor Program®/Be The Match® offering integrated platforms and software to manage the collection and delivery of cellular therapies, today announced a strategic collaboration to improve outcomes for patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell (bone marrow) transplantation. The collaboration supports NiCord®, Gamida Cell’s investigational cell therapy, which has the potential to serve as a universal bone marrow donor source for patients with hematologic malignancies, or blood cancers, and bone marrow failure disorders requiring bone marrow transplantation.
Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, Gamida Cell and Be The Match BioTherapies will explore opportunities to work together across Gamida Cell’s ongoing clinical development program for NiCord, including the Phase 3 clinical study in patients with high-risk blood cancers. Be The Match BioTherapies has an extensive history of involvement in the delivery of cord blood units for transplant and broad access to cord blood banks globally.
The collaboration is expected to leverage a wide range of Be The Match BioTherapies’ research assets and services, including the Be The Match Registry®, the largest in the world with more than 20 million potential donors, as well as personalized case management and logistics services.
“Gamida Cell’s work to bring a new therapeutic option to patients in need of a bone marrow transplant aligns with our core mission to help organizations deliver cellular therapies that save more lives and improve the quality of life for patients,” said Amy Ronneberg, president of Be The Match BioTherapies. “This collaboration is designed to leverage our expertise in cellular therapy to support the advancement of Gamida Cell’s clinical development and product delivery efforts.”
Despite the curative potential of bone marrow transplants, it is estimated that more than 40 percent of eligible patients in the U.S. do not receive one for various reasons, including difficulty in finding a matched donor.1 NiCord is designed to potentially serve as a universal alternative to existing donor sources for bone marrow transplant.
“Be the Match BioTherapies is a respected leader in cell therapy, with especially deep roots in stem cell transplantation. Our two organizations share the belief that new cell therapies are needed not only to improve outcomes for patients undergoing stem cell transplants but also to offer patients unable to find a matched donor the chance for a successful transplant,” stated Julian Adams, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Gamida Cell. “This collaboration maximizes the strengths and expertise of our teams to help move us closer to our common goal of transforming this important area of medicine.”
About Gamida Cell
Gamida Cell is a clinical stage
biopharmaceutical company leveraging its proprietary technology to
develop cell therapies that are designed to cure cancer and rare,
serious hematologic diseases. The company is leveraging its
nicotinamide-, or NAM-, based cell expansion technology to develop a
pipeline of products designed to address the limitations of cell
therapies.
About NiCord
NiCord, Gamida Cell’s lead clinical program, is
under development as a universal bone marrow transplant solution for
patients with high-risk hematologic malignancies. NiCord has been
granted breakthrough status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,
making it the first bone marrow transplant alternative to receive this
designation. It has also received U.S. and EU orphan drug designation. A
Phase 3 study evaluating NiCord in patients with leukemia and lymphoma
is ongoing in the United States, Europe and Asia.2 For more
information on NiCord clinical trials, please visit www.clinicaltrials.gov.
About Be The Match BioTherapies
Be
The Match BioTherapies is the only cell and gene therapy solutions
provider with customizable services to support the end-to-end cell
therapy supply chain. Backed by the industry-leading experience of the National
Marrow Donor Program/Be The Match, and a research partnership
with the CIBMTR® (Center
for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research®), the
organization designs solutions that advance cell and gene therapies in
any stage of development.
Be The Match BioTherapies is dedicated to providing high-quality cellular starting material consented for research, clinical and commercial use, developing and managing expansive cell collection networks, and navigating cell therapy regulatory compliance. Using proven infrastructure to successfully manage autologous and allogeneic cell therapy supply chains, including MatchSource® Supply Chain Software, personalized case managers and logistics experts, the organization has a history of compliance managing the chain of identity. The collaboration with CIBMTR extends services to include long-term follow-up tracking for the first two FDA-approved CAR-T therapies.
For more information, follow Be The Match BioTherapies on LinkedIn or Twitter at @BTMBioTherapies.
References
1U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services: Health Resources and Services Administration. Bone Marrow and
Cord Blood Donation and Transplantation. https://bloodcell.transplant.hrsa.gov/about/general_faqs/index.html.
Last accessed December 13, 2018.
2ClinicalTrials.gov
identifier NCT02730299.
Gamida Cell Forward Looking Statements
This press release
contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including with respect
to the strategic collaboration between Gamida Cell and Be The Match
BioTherapies, which statements are subject to a number of risks,
uncertainties and assumptions, including, but not limited to the scope,
progress and expansion of Gamida Cell’s ongoing Phase 3 study evaluating
NiCord and the scope and progress of the ongoing collaboration efforts
of both Gamida Cell and Be The Match BioTherapies. In light of these
risks and uncertainties, and other risks and uncertainties that are
described in the Risk Factors section of our Registration Statement on
Form F-1 filed with the SEC on September 28, 2018, and other filings
that Gamida Cell makes with the SEC from time to time (which are
available at http://www.sec.gov),
the events and circumstances discussed in such forward-looking
statements may not occur, and Gamida Cell’s actual results could differ
materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied thereby. Any
forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press
release and are based on information available to Gamida Cell as of the
date of this release.