Marker Therapeutics Inc (MRKR)

[Epicare]

At the ASH San Diego meeting, it is getting crowded with immunotherapy clinical trials. There are about 10 early trial studies from all over the world on meoloma (MM). There are total 217 patients with MM participated in these 10 trials, ranging from 10 to 57 pts per trial. All were in very early stage, but all trials show that CAR-T adoptive immunotherapy has consistent results on MM with a range of treatment response from 82 to 100%. Among them, eight trials of the CAR-T cell therapies are directed against BCMA (B-cell maturation antigen)—a protein found on the surface of most myeloma cells. Only two trials, with a total of 22 patients, took different approaches to target additional other myeloma cell surface proteins in addition to BCMA. MRKR/Baylor group with 12 patients is one of those two. Ultimately the winner and differentiating features with ongoing studies/trials will rely on how long responses last, the maximum number of cells that need to be infused, antigen spreading, and less side effects such as CRS and neurotoxicity. By far, MRKR trial showed the multiple antigen approaches with probably the least toxicity among these trials.