With $116 million in new funding on tap, BrainChild Bio said Tuesday that it has initiated a pivotal study of the B7-H3-targeted autologous CAR-T cell therapy BCB-276, in the hopes of delivering a much-needed new treatment option for patients with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG).
With the current standard-of-care treatment for DIPG limited to palliative focal radiation therapy, median overall survival for this rare and aggressive paediatric brainstem tumour is about 11 months from diagnosis. In the Phase I BrainChild-03 study, BCB-276 has already bettered this, boosting median survival from diagnosis in 21 patients — including those treated both before and after disease progression — to 19.8 months.
CEO Steven Brugger told FirstWord that in the subset of pre-progression patients in the early-stage study, there are three who have survived more than 5 years post-diagnosis. "Such long-term survivors are unheard of in DIPG."
BrainChild Bio is now hoping to replicate this result in a larger Phase II trial, which is designed to recruit 75 children and young adults with newly diagnosed DIPG who will all be administered BCB-276 following initial focal radiation therapy. The ILLUMINATE study will compare the patients' outcomes — looking at overall survival, safety and tumour response — to those from similar individuals with DIPG whose data have been collected in a registry.
The trial, based on discussions with the FDA, is designed to speed the path to submitting a marketing application for BCB-276 in the US. According to an entry on ClinicalTrials.gov, the study has an estimated primary completion date of late 2028.
The alignment with the FDA has allowed the company to swiftly move forward with development, despite slight differences between the CAR-Ts being used in the two trials. Brugger explained to FirstWord that the therapy studied in Phase I "is very similar" to BCB-276, but the latter has been optimised for the pivotal trial.
"The optimisation primarily related to features that streamline the manufacturing of BCB-276," Brugger said, noting that "in our meetings with the FDA, they agreed that we can seamlessly transition from the CAR-T therapy used in Phase I to the BCB-276 in Phase II." Last year, BrainChild Bio entered a collaboration with contract development and manufacturing organisation OmniaBio on production of BCB-276.
The CAR-T is produced from a participant's own immune cells, with the treatment administered by locoregional delivery directly into the cerebrospinal fluid using an indwelling reservoir-catheter device. In ILLUMINATE, patients will receive the CAR-T therapy approximately every two weeks for a planned course of up to a total of 15 doses over about 7-8 months.
Brugger noted that the delivery method allows BCB-276 to be "applied more like a drug, with a controlled, repetitive dosing regimen," whilst also taking advantage of the blood-brain barrier to contain the CAR-T within the brain and avoid any off-target effects. The localised dosing of BCB-276 also removes the need for lymphodepleting chemotherapy, and its associated risks of cytokine and inflammatory responses, an issue seen with traditional CAR-T therapies.
BrainChild Bio has moved swiftly since its launch in 2023 to further the work of Michael Jensen at Seattle Children's hospital into CAR-T therapies for CNS tumours. "Bringing this pivotal Phase II study forward for children battling DIPG has been our steadfast purpose at BrainChild Bio," said Jensen, who serves as the biotech's chief scientific officer.
The mid-stage trial will be funded with proceeds from the series A financing, which closed Tuesday, with backing from BrainChild Bio's initial investor, Seattle Children's, and new participant WRF Capital. However, the funding round was led by an undisclosed private family fund and foundation, which is aligned with the biotech's mission.
While this mission is initially taking aim at DIPG, BrainChild Bio harbours ambitions beyond this via its second pipeline asset, a triple-targeting CAR-T therapy dubbed BCB-214. The compound takes aim at EGFR, B7-H3 and IL13Ralpha2 in an effort to treat glioblastoma in adults, as well as other paediatric brain tumours, such as diffuse midline glioma.
The content above comes from the network. if any infringement, please contact us to modify.