ExCellThera announces first patient treated in Phase I/II trial of ECT-001 cell therapy for pediatric patients with high risk blood cancer

MONTREAL, March 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ExCellThera Inc. (ExCellThera), a clinical-stage cell expansion and engineering company delivering molecules and bioengineering solutions to expand and engineer various cell lines for use in next generation cell and gene therapies, announced today that the first patient has been dosed in its Phase I/II clinical trial of ECT-001 for the treatment of pediatric and young adults with high risk myeloid malignancies. The patient received treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

“Our previous study results indicate that our lead technology, ECT-001, is safe and effective in bringing rapid and robust immune recovery with low rates of severe infection in adult patients,” said Dr. Pierre Caudrelier, Chief Medical Officer of ExCellThera. “Given these previous results, we believe the ECT-001 cell therapy will present a new treatment option for younger patients that have not responded well to conventional therapies.”

The Phase I/II study (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04990323) expects to enroll 15 patients in this first stage of the study. Primary evaluation measures are the incidence of adverse events and disease relapse, and secondary measures include leukemia-free survival, time to engraftment and incidence of graft-versus-host-disease and other severe infections.

ExCellThera’s ECT-001, a cell therapy under clinical development, is generated from the expansion of cord blood units using the UM171 small molecule and an optimized culture system. It is a potential new curative therapy for patients with blood cancers and disorders. Several additional clinical trials using the technology are completed or underway in Canada and the United States.

About ExCellThera

ExCellThera is a clinical-stage cell expansion and engineering company delivering molecules and bioengineering solutions to expand and engineer various cell lines for use in novel one-time curative therapies for patients with hematologic malignancies and other diseases. ExCellThera’s most advanced technology, ECT-001 cell therapy, combines a proprietary molecule, UM171, and an optimized culture system. In pursuit of better treatments for patients, the company is building out its cell expansion and engineering platform, as well as supporting best-in-class clinical trials. excellthera.com

CONTACT: Contact:

David Desjardins
Vice President, Business and Corporate Development
david.desjardins@excellthera.com