Hadasit Medical Research Services & Development Ltd.

A novel approach to treating skin toxicities caused by EGFRi, based on a decade of research by leading Israeli cancer researchers JERUSALEM, June 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Hadasit, and Yissum, has spun off EMRIS Pharma in collaboration with NGT Healthcare2 VC. EMRIS Pharma is pioneering novel small molecule-based topical compounds that can improve both quality of life and treatment compliance for cancer patients. Based on over ten years of research collaboration by the founders, Dr. Sharon Merims, a senior dermatologist specializing in dermato-oncology at the Hadassah Medical Center, and Professor Ofra Benny from the Institute for Drug Research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and with the support of NGT Healthcare2 VC, the company's first product aims to treat the skin toxicities caused by EGFRi (Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor inhibitors). Many of the molecularly targeted agents used in current cancer treatments, particularly those interfering with signal transduction EGFRi and small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors, are associated with papulopustular skin rash. This rash is observed in ~90% of patients receiving EGFR-targeted monoclonal antibodies, and often impacts the patient's quality of life, and the ability to continue the cancer treatment. Dr. Merims will serve as EMRIS Pharma's Chief Scientific Officer, and Professor Benny as the company's Chief Technology Officer. Emris ,founded by NGT Healthcare2 VC, licensed the technology from Hadasit, the Technology Transfer Company of Hadassah Medical Organization and Yissum, the Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. License terms include various payments such as license fees, milestones payments and royalties. "Current strategies for treating skin toxicities caused by EGFR inhibitors are of limited benefit and there is an urgent need for novel and potent treatment for these skin toxicities," said Dr. Sharon Merims. " Our novel proactive strategy for the management of EGFR therapy-mediated skin rash may help to maximize the benefit for oncology patients by minimizing the negative effects on quality of life, maintaining an optimal monoclonal antibody dose and thus leading to a better response to the anti-cancer treatment". "The lead compound developed by EMRIS Pharma has been initially successful in blocking EGFRi monoclonal antibodies from binding to EGFR both in vitro and ex vivo," said Professor Ofra Benny "The delivery system for this treatment is also unique in that it is a slow-release system that penetrates the deep layers of the epidermis where EGFR is most dense." "As a venture capital firm focused on healthcare innovation, we are excited to partner with EMRIS Pharma on their groundbreaking cancer treatment product. Their novel approach to managing skin toxicities caused by EGFR inhibitors has the potential to significantly improve the quality of life for cancer patients and increase treatment compliance. We believe that EMRIS Pharma's innovative research and development will lead to a brighter future for cancer patients, and we look forward to supporting their mission." - Zohar Gendler, Managing Partner &CEO, NGT Healthcare2 About The Hadassah Medical Center The Hadassah Medical Center was established in 1912 and is a world-class facility. For more than a century, Hadassah has set the standard of excellence for medical care and research in Israel. Every year, Hadassah provides nearly one million people with hospital services, and in keeping with worldwide trends, the Hadassah University Medical Center in Israel is moving toward day care and day hospitalization to reduce costs and risk of infection. Our doctors and scientists are on the frontlines, uniquely positioned to pinpoint ever-evolving medical needs. Their experience and ingenuity have yielded new ideas with huge potential in all areas of medicine, including therapeutics, diagnostic medical devices, and digital health. For more information about Hadassah, please visit - About the Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel's leading academic and research institution. Serving 24,000 students from 80 countries, it produces a third of Israel's civilian research and is ranked 12th worldwide in biotechnology patent filings and commercial development. Faculty and alumni of the Hebrew University have won eight Nobel Prizes and a Fields Medal. For more information about the Hebrew University, please visit . About Hadasit Medical Research Services and Development Hadasit is the technology transfer company and innovation engine of Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem. Hadasit transforms the cutting-edge research coming out of Hadassah into marketable medical technologies, that can change the world and better humanity. With more than 260 active patent families, which have yielded numerous medical and commercial breakthroughs, Hadasit established companies, licenses technologies, and collaborates with leading international companies and research facilities around the world. To date, Hadasit had spun off over 65 companies, including the publicly traded Hadasit Bio-Holdings (TASE: HDST) in which Hadasit is a major shareholder. Yissum is the technology transfer company of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Founded in 1964, it serves as a bridge between cutting-edge academic research and a global community of entrepreneurs, investors, and industry. Yissum's mission is to benefit society by converting extraordinary innovations and transformational technologies into commercial solutions that address our most urgent global challenges. Yissum has registered over 11,000 patents globally; licensed over 1,140 technologies and has spun out more than 200 companies. Yissum's business partners span the globe and include companies such as Boston Scientific, ICL, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis and many more. Additional information about EMRIS Pharma: [email protected]. Logo - SOURCE Hadasit

GAITHERSBURG, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Adaptive Phage Therapeutics, Inc. (APT), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of phage-based therapies to combat bacterial infections, is pleased to announce a collaboration and license agreement with the Israeli Phage Therapy Center (IPTC) of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Hadassah Medical Center. Researchers at the IPTC have discovered several phages that have exceptionally broad coverage against antibiotic resistant bacteria. Under the agreement, Hadasit and Yissum, the technology transfer companies of Hadassah and the Hebrew University, grants APT exclusive rights to make, use, and sell licensed phages for human therapy, with the right to sublicense through multiple tiers. APT also has the first right to evaluate additional phages discovered by IPTC researchers for inclusion in APT’s phage bank. As consideration for the license and first right of refusal, APT made an upfront payment and will pay royalties from net sales on any therapeutic composition comprising a licensed phage. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: (Photo: Business Wire) Notably, the licensed phages have already been used in emergency compassionate-use treatments for numerous patients for whom antibiotic options had been exhausted. In April 2023 the IPTC reported that 78% of compassionate-use bacteriophage treatments for antibiotic-resistant infections given since 2018 to patients at the Hadassah Medical Center and other hospitals in Israel have resulted in favorable outcomes. The center has received 159 requests for compassionate use of phage therapy for previously failed infections from Israel, the US, Finland and Germany. The most common indications for phage requests were bone and respiratory infections, with the most common bacteria being Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii and Staphylococcus aureus. Of the 18 patients who received intravenous phage therapy, 14 (78%) achieved clinical remission, and four (22%) were classified as treatment failure. No major side effects were reported. “Over the past several years, we have built a mutually beneficial relationship with the scientists and clinicians at the Israeli Phage Therapy Center,” said Greg Merril, CEO of APT. “We are thrilled to enter into this collaboration and license agreement and to continue our work with Dr. Nir-Paz, Dr. Hazan, and the impressive group of phage scientists at Hebrew University and Hadassah Medical Center. We believe that phage-based therapies have the potential to revolutionize the treatment of bacterial infections, particularly in patients who have exhausted all other options, and this collaboration will enhance APT’s phage bank and enable us to bring these therapies to more patients in need.” "We are excited to announce our collaboration and licensing agreement with the foremost phage therapy biotech firm, Adaptive Phage Therapeutics,” said Ronan Hazan, PhD, Head of the Israeli Phage Therapy Center and the Israeli Phage Bank and Head of the Institute of Biomedical and Oral Research (IBOR) of the Dental Medicine Faculty of the Hebrew University. “This partnership is a significant milestone in our mission to combat antimicrobial resistance using phage therapy. It is our conviction that phage therapy holds enormous potential to transform the way infectious diseases are treated, and this collaboration will help us bring these innovative treatments to patients in need. We look forward to working together to advance the field of phage therapy and develop new solutions to the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance." "As an infectious disease doctor, I recognize the urgent need for new solutions in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. I am thrilled to see the Israeli Phage Therapy Center entering into a collaboration and licensing agreement with Adaptive Phage Therapeutics, the leading phage therapy biotech firm,” said Ran Nir-Paz, MD, Professor of Clinical Microbiology and Medicine at the department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center and co-founder of the Israeli Phage Therapy Center. “Phage therapy holds great promise in addressing this global crisis, and this partnership is a crucial step forward in bringing these innovative treatments to patients in need." The emergency clinical use of the phages licensed under this agreement have led to several published case studies and other manuscripts currently being prepared for publication, including: Nir-Paz R, Gelman D, Khouri A, Sisson BM, Fackler J, Alkalay-Oren S, Khalifa L, Rimon A, Yerushalmy O, Bader R, Amit S, Coppenhagen-Glazer S, Henry M, Quinones J, Malagon F, Biswas B, Moses AE, Merril G, Schooley RT, Brownstein MJ, Weil YA, Hazan R. 2019. Successful treatment of antibiotic-resistant, poly-microbial bone infection with bacteriophages and antibiotics combination. Clin Infect Dis 69:2015–2018. 10.1093/cid/ciz222. PubMed. Ameneh Khatami, Ruby C Y Lin, Aleksandra Petrovic-Fabijan, Sivan Alkalay-Oren, Sulaiman Almuzam, Philip N Britton, Michael J Brownstein, Quang Dao, Joe Fackler, Ronen Hazan, Bri’Anna Horne, Ran Nir-Paz, Jonathan R Iredell. Bacterial lysis, autophagy and innate immune responses during adjunctive phage therapy in a child. EMBO Mol Med (2021)13:e13936. 9 August 2021 About The Israeli Phage Therapy Center (IPTC) The IPTC was operating since 2018, by the Hadassah Medical Center and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The center has received 159 requests for compassionate use of phage therapy for previously failed infections from Israel, the US, Finland and Germany. The most common indications for phage requests were bone and respiratory infections, with the most common bacteria being Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii and Staphylococcus aureus. Of the 18 patients who received intravenous phage therapy, 14 (78%) achieved clinical remission, and four (22%) were classified as treatment failure. No major side effects were reported. About The Hadassah Medical Center The Hadassah Medical Center was established in 1912 and is a world-class facility. For more than a century, Hadassah has set the standard of excellence for medical care and research in Israel. Every year, Hadassah provides nearly one million people with hospital services, and in keeping with worldwide trends, the Hadassah University Medical Center in Israel is moving toward day care and day hospitalization to reduce costs and risk of infection. Our doctors and scientists are on the frontlines, uniquely positioned to pinpoint ever-evolving medical needs. Their experience and ingenuity have yielded new ideas with huge potential in all areas of medicine, including therapeutics, diagnostic medical devices, and digital health. For more information about the Hadassah Medical Center, please visit About the Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel's leading academic and research institution. Serving 24,000 students from 80 countries, it produces a third of Israel's civilian research and is ranked 12th worldwide in biotechnology patent filings and commercial development. Faculty and alumni of the Hebrew University have won eight Nobel Prizes and a Fields Medal. For more information about the Hebrew University, please visit . About Adaptive Phage Therapeutics, Inc. (APT) Adaptive Phage Therapeutics (APT) is a clinical-stage company advancing therapies to treat multidrug-resistant infections based on a phage bank concept originally initiated at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by APT co-founder Carl R. Merril, M.D., Capt. USPHS (ret). APT phage bank is being steadily expanded with new phage discoveries and collections from a variety of sources, including the biodefense labs of US Department of Defense, internal phage discovery initiatives at APT, and academic phage research labs collaborators around the world. APT is the sponsor of ongoing clinical trials in Prosthetic Joint Infection (PJI) and Diabetic Foot Osteomyelitis (DFO), addressing notable unmet patient needs in those bacterial infection indications. APT’s phage bank has also been used in over 70 compassionate cases under FDA emergency Investigational New Drug allowance in which standard-of-care antibiotics had failed. APT phage bank is paired with a phage susceptibility test (PST) that matches each patient bacterial isolate to specific lytic phage within APT’s collection – analogous to an antibiotic susceptibility test for matching antibiotics. The APT PST will be commercialized worldwide in collaboration with Mayo Clinic Laboratories. APT’s clinical development program has attracted substantial financial support from The Defense Health Agency (DHA), NIAID/NIH, The Mayo Clinic, the AMR Action Fund, Deerfield Management, and other VC funds and healthcare systems. For more information, visit .

HBI0101, anti-BCMA CAR-T cells, showed 90% overall response rate in ongoing Phase 1b clinical trial with 50 relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients HBI0101 also demonstrated 100% overall response rate in 6 relapsed/refractory AL Amyloidosis patients JERUSALEM and RAMAT GAN, Israel , Jan. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Hadasit, the Innovation Engine of Hadassah Medical Organization and BIRAD, the Commercialization arm of Bar-Ilan University announced today that they have entered into the research and license agreement with Immix BioPharma, for the development and commercialization of novel tissue specific therapeutics based on anti-BCMA CAR-T cells targeting plasma cell. This technology has been developed as the result of a collaboration between Prof. Polina Stepensky, of Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem and Prof. Cyrille J. Cohen, of Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan. Dr. Shlomit Kfir-Erenfeld and Dr. Nathalie Asherie, of Hadassah Medical Center, and Ortal Harush, of Bar-Ilan University, also participated in the research. As of December 20, 2022, cutoff date, a total of 56 patients, including 50 multiple myeloma patients and 6 AL Amyloidosis patients, have received HBI0101, anti-BCMA CAR-T cells, as part of the ongoing Phase 1b clinical trial at Hadassah Medical Organization. At the current stage of the clinical study, when the patients received a target dose of 800M CAR-T positive cells, the overall response rate of the relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients reached 90%. The complete response rate of the AL amyloidosis patients reached 100%. In both patient populations, no significant unexpected side effects were observed. Prof. Polina Stepensky, Head of Hadassah's Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cancer Immunotherapy and her team are responsible for the selection of B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) as the optimal target for the treatment of multiple myeloma and are evaluating this novel CAR-T technology in the clinic. Prof. Polina Stepensky, said, "We are very excited with the outstanding interim results of our ongoing Phase 1b study in multiple myeloma and amyloidosis AL patients. The licensing agreement will enable us to continue to advance the clinical studies. Our new adoptive cell transfer technology could become one of the first CAR-T treatments for these indications and other BCMA-positive malignancies and has the potential to improve the lives of so many patients globally." Prof. Stepensky joined forces with Prof. Cyrille J. Cohen, Head of the Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy Lab at Bar-Ilan University and a renowned scientist in the field of immune cells engineering, who designed the novel vector in this exciting collaboration. Prof. Cohen and his team built the optimal anti-BCMA CAR construct with proprietary design adaptations. They demonstrated the biological activity of CAR-T cells in the first preclinical studies, leading to establishment of the mutual invention of the researchers. Prof. Cohen commented, "For the first time, we successfully reprogrammed a patient's immune system with a proprietary receptor that we developed in our lab at Bar-Ilan University. Through this collaboration with Hadassah Medical Center, dozens of patients have the future promise of a better treatment option. This successful treatment encourages us to continue developing new approaches for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases." Further development of the technology was led by the Hadassah team, including extensive proof of concept preclinical studies, establishment of the GMP graded master cell bank, construction of a GMP manufacturing facility, implementation of SOPs and receiving the regulatory approval of the Israeli MOH to conduct clinical trial on humans. "Hadassah Medical Organization, as one of the leading medical centers in Israel, is devoted to bringing to the Israeli population the most advanced healthcare technology in an affordable fashion," said Prof. Yoram Weiss, Director General of Hadassah Medical Organization. "Hadassah has invested millions of dollars of its donors' money to support this technology during the first crucial stages of development, with the ultimate goal of bringing life-saving CAR-T therapy to cancer patients. I would also like to thank Israel's Ministry of Health for its support of this project, in recognition of its innovation and importance for Israeli patients. We are delighted that we are able to share this technology at this point in time with the international community." Zohar Yinon, CEO and SVP, Bar-Ilan University, commented, "I am proud of the scientific excellence of Prof. Cohen and the collaboration with Hadassah Medical Center. This is an example of the variety of research in the fields of health and medicine taking place in Bar-Ilan University's labs, and of our eco-system that produces cutting-edge research and initiatives that are ready for commercialization by scientists at the faculties of medicine, life sciences, and engineering, the brain center, and the Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (BINA)." About Hadassah Medical Organization For more than a century, Hadassah has set the standard of excellence for medical care and research in Israel. Every year, Hadassah provides more than one million people with hospital services, and in keeping with worldwide trends, the Hadassah University Medical Center in Israel is moving toward day care and day hospitalization to reduce costs and risk of infections. Our doctors and scientists are on the front lines, uniquely positioned to pinpoint ever-evolving medical needs. Their experience and ingenuity have yielded new ideas with huge potential in all areas of medicine, including therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices and digital health. About Hadasit Medical Research Services and Development Hadasit is the technology transfer company of Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem. Hadasit transforms the cutting-edge research coming out of Hadassah into marketable medical technologies. Hadasit turns ground-breaking ideas into viable products and services that can change the world and improve humanity's healthcare. With more than 250 active patent families, which have yielded numerous medical and commercial breakthroughs, Hadasit established companies, licenses technologies, and collaborates with leading international companies and research facilities around the world. To date, Hadasit had spun off over 65 companies, including the publicly traded Hadasit Bio-Holdings (TASE: HDST) in which Hadasit is a major shareholder. About BIRAD BIRAD – Research & Development Company Ltd. is the commercializing company of Bar-Ilan University, which promotes collaborations, corporations and alliances of its ~ 240 patent families; and the technologies' commercialization of its scientists' research fruits, by licensing and sponsored research agreements with local and global companies, promoting scientific service agreements through the technological knowledge and infrastructures of the University for the benefit of members of the industrial community, and outsourcing services for the business sector as part of the Division of Scientific Services. About Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University is one of Israel's leading institutions of higher education. The University has nine faculties: Jewish Studies, Medicine, Engineering, Law, Life Sciences, Exact Sciences, Social Sciences, Education, and Humanities that are active partners in Israel's national science and technology initiatives. Seeking "Impact beyond Excellence", BIU has created challenge-driven research centers which embrace practical research designed to change and improve the human experience. For more information: Media contact: Tsipi Haitovsky Global Media Liaison Hadasit +972-52-5989-892 [email protected] SOURCE Hadasit