Vascular Biogenics Ltd (VBLT)

[wcopeland]

Thanks for sharing! I only got halfway through the presentation (wanted to write something before sleeping). I will finish it tomorrow.

I am very impressed with VBLT and Dror seems to really just enjoy doing great science. It is amazing!

Patents

I am curious about the extent of their patents. It seems obvious that they are patenting applications of MOSPD2 targeting for monocytes and tumors using both mAbs and CAR-T modalities. I wonder if they have also considered patents surrounding companion diagnostics that include MOSPD2. If that signal is truly present on several solid tumors (Slide 33/62 & 34/62) and a significant predictor of metastasis/response/etc, then they could at least try to lock down that CDx space since they identified the target. (Roche did that with PD-L1: http://www.ventana.com/pd-l1-biomarker-assay-news)

MOSPD2 Specificity

Dror fumbles through something very important on Slide 41/62. I think what he meant to say is that MOSPD2 expression is 2-3 orders of magnitude greater on tumor cells than on monocytes? Use that knowledge to better understand the relative expression of MOSPD2 in tumors compared to all the healthy tissues shown on Slide 28/62. In short: MOSPD2 appears to be an excellent target.

My one concern is that, after tumor and monocytes, MOSPD2 expression is highest in "neural-like" cells. More on this in the next comment.


CAR-T Testing Underway

This is huge! A big challenge with CAR-T cells is finding suitable antigens. That is one reason why CAR-T therapies have been limited to targets like CD19/20 and BCMA. Clone#89 (slide 42/62) targets MOSPD2 in cancer cells but not in monocytes. If (1) they can really use Clone#89 as the basis for the antigen binding domain for CAR-T and (2) they can demonstrate tumor response in in vivo studies that evaluate several mouse tumor models (ie. BRCA, HCC), then they have hit the jackpot. He said they already have CAR Ts built, so I am very excited to track this one in the coming months.

From a science perspective, they essentially will have a process to tailor-make tissue/cell-specific CAR-Ts. From a business perspective, they will have access to several more tumor types.

However, there is one big question I have about their CAR T approach. Is MOSPD2's expression on neural cells significant enough to lead to issues? Remember, Juno canned their trials because patients kept dying of cerebral edemas. (http://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/juno-car-t-study-put-hold-again-after-cerebral-edemas-and-fatality-again)


Once again, thanks for the share! I am excited.