Leucid Bio – a company concentrating on a differentiated approach to developing next generation Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies – has announced a commercial manufacturing master services partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (GOSH).

The link-up will focus on manufacturing lead asset, LEU011. The therapy is a lateral CAR that targets NKG2D ligands for use across human clinical studies. Leucid Bio expects to file its application to commence the clinical trial this year, with a view to dosing patients suffering from solid tumours and haematological malignancies later in 2023 – subject to regulatory approval.

GOSH runs specialised manufacturing facilities for the development and research of cell and gene therapies. The deal also includes cleanroom laboratories, storage and specialist training facilities.

Under the terms of the agreement, GOSH will collaborate with Leucid at the Zayed Centre for Research into Rare Disease in Children, while providing quality assurance services required for the manufacturing of clinical products for the LEU011 candidate study.

Other preclinical studies have shown that LEU011 consistently performs better than previous generations of CAR-T cells, enabling better control over T-cell activation, superior anti-tumour activity and a sound toxicity profile.

Stephen Mathew, Head of Innovation at GOSH, explained: “Gene and cell therapies are the cutting-edge in clinical research, holding promise to offer personalised cancer treatment, including for rare forms that affect children and young people.”

Owlstone Medical – a company focused on precision medicine and early disease detection – has announced that it has reached a research agreement with Bicycle Therapeutics. The latter is a company that develops new therapies based on its bicyclic peptide technology.

As part of the partnership, the two companies will study the potential of combining technologies and methods to develop antigen-targeted diagnostic probes that use bicyclic peptides as their targeting system. This research is associated with Owlstone’s Exogenous Volatile Organic Compound (EVOC) Probes.

Analysis will initially concentrate on lung cancer screening as the first proof of principle for the broader potential by promoting selective accumulation of the probe at the tumour. This will in turn provide increased signals and enhanced specificity.

If successful, the resulting antigen-targeted EVOC Probes will have the potential for use in preclinical research to support both cell-based and invivo studies, in clinical trials for patient stratification and measurement of target engagement, and as companion diagnostics to identify responders/non-responders for therapy selection and to measure target engagement over the course of treatment.

Meanwhile, Owlstone is developing diagnostic tests in areas of high unmet clinical need. This includes the early detection of lung cancer – still the most common cancer in the world. To bolster this aim, Owlstone has incorporated the use of EVOC Probes.