Innovation Fund Denmark invests DKK 25 million in an innovation project developing PokeAcell’s ImmPACT cell therapy for IND submission and clinical testing in Merkel Cell Carcinoma.
The project is an example of increasing innovation and expertise in cell therapy in Denmark and the great therapeutic potential that cell therapy is expected to have in the long term. The project has brought together an International partnership supporting the development of the technology and clinical testing at University of Washington and Fred Hutch Cancer Center.
“With the ImmPACT technology we can stimulate personally selected T cells from patient’s blood that we know is critical to tumor killing in Merkel Cell Carcinoma. With the ImmPACT activation the T cells will expand and be optimally profiled to kill the tumor. The patients then received their own personalized T cell product as treatment”, Anne Reker Cordt, CEO at PokeAcell, explains.
DTU has invented the ImmPACT technology and together with leading doctors in the USA identified the T cells that are particularly crucial in connection with Merkel Celle Carcinoma.
PokeAcell has exclusive rights and expertise in developing cell products with ImmPACT and will in the project work with CBIO around the production of T cells.
University of Washington and its collaboration partner Fred Hutch Cancer Center are experts at Merkel Cell Carcinoma and sees great potential in the multitargeted T cell therapy. They will conduct the clinical trial in the project, where the goal is to show that the treatment is safe and effective.