Humanigen, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing its portfolio of next-generation cell and gene therapies for the treatment of cancers via its novel, GM-CSF neutralization and gene-knockout platforms. As a leader in GM-CSF pathway science, we believe that we have the ability to transform CAR-T therapy and a broad range of other T-cell engaging therapies, including both autologous and allogeneic cell transplantation. There is a direct correlation between the efficacy of CAR-T therapy and the incidence of life-threatening toxicities (referred to as the efficacy/toxicity linkage). We believe that our GM-CSF neutralization and gene-editing platform technologies have the potential to reduce the inflammatory cascade associated with serious and potentially life-threatening CAR-T therapy-related side effects while preserving and potentially improving the efficacy of the CAR-T therapy itself, thereby breaking the efficacy/toxicity linkage. Clinical correlative analysis and pre-clinical in vivo evidence points to GM-CSF as the key initiator of the inflammatory cascade resulting in CAR-T therapy’s side-effects. Pre-clinical in vivo data on the neutralization of GM-CSF using antibody or gene KO indicates that it is not required for CAR-T cell activity. Our strategy is to continue to pioneer the use of GM-CSF neutralization and GM-CSF gene knockout technologies to improve efficacy and prevent or significantly reduce the serious side-effects associated with CAR-T therapy.
We believe that our GM-CSF pathway science, assets and expertise create two technology platforms to usher in next-generation CAR-T therapies. Lenzilumab, our proprietary Humaneered® anti-GM-CSF immunotherapy, has the potential to be used in combination with any FDA-approved or development stage CAR-T therapy, as well as in combination with other cell therapies such as HSCT, to make these treatments safer and more effective. In addition, our GM-CSF knockout gene-editing platform has the potential to create next-generation CAR-T therapies that may inherently avoid any efficacy/toxicity linkage, thereby potentially preserving the benefits of the CAR-T therapy while altogether avoiding its serious and potentially life-threatening side-effects.
The company’s immediate focus is combining FDA-approved and development stage CAR-T therapies with lenzilumab, the company’s proprietary Humaneered® anti-human-GM-CSF immunotherapy, which is its lead product candidate. A clinical collaboration with Kite, a Gilead Company, was recently announced to evaluate the use of lenzilumab with Yescarta®, axicabtagene ciloleucel, in a multicenter clinical trial in adults with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma. The company is also focused on creating next-generation combinatory gene-edited CAR-T therapies using strategies to improve efficacy while employing GM-CSF gene knockout technologies to control toxicity. The company is also developing its own portfolio of proprietary first-in-class EphA3-CAR-T for various solid cancers and EMR1-CAR-T for various eosinophilic disorders. The company is also exploring the effectiveness of its GM-CSF neutralization technologies (either through the use of lenzilumab as a neutralizing antibody or through GM-CSF gene knockout) in combination with other CAR-T, T cell engaging, and immunotherapy treatments to break the efficacy/toxicity linkage including the prevention and/or treatment graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in patients undergoing allogeneic HSCT. The company has established several partnerships with leading institutions to advance its innovative cell and gene therapy pipeline.
