Tevogen Bio, a late-stage clinical biotechnology company specializing in the development of cellular immunotherapies in oncology, neurology, and virology today announced its intention to study potential therapeutic use of its allogeneic genetically unmodified precision T cell technology in multiple sclerosis (MS) by developing Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) specific CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). These CTLs will also be studied for the potential use in EBV-related cancers, such as nasopharyngeal carcinoma and certain lymphomas.
“Recent studies on MS have suggested a probable link between infection with EBV and later onset of the inflammation that degrades the myelin sheath and causes MS,” said Dr. Neal Flomenberg, Tevogen’s Chief Scientific Officer. “We look to apply our significant expertise in off-the-shelf allogeneic SARS-CoV-2 specific CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes to explore EBV specific CTL therapy as a possible means of addressing the unmet needs of MS patients and certain cancer patients,” Flomenberg added.
“With nearly 1 million patients living with multiple sclerosis in the United States alone, we hope to bring additional arsenal to help treat this debilitating disease, which impacts patients in their most productive years,” said Sadiq Khan, M.B.A, Tevogen’s Chief Commercial Officer.
“We believe that cell therapies are expected to be the norm, not the exception,” said Tevogen CEO Ryan Saadi, M.D., M.P.H. “Tevogen aspires and is designed to be the very first biotech to achieve commercial success and patient affordability through advanced science and efficient business models.”
About Tevogen’s Next Generation Precision T Cell Platform
Tevogen’s next generation precision T cell platform is designed to provide increased immunologic specificity to eliminate malignant and virally infected cells, while allowing healthy cells to remain intact. Multiple targets are selected in advance with the goal of overcoming the mutational capacity of cancer cells and viruses which can otherwise allow for escape from immunologic targeting.
Tevogen is investigating its technology’s potential to overcome the primary barriers to the broad application of personalized T cell therapies: potency, purity, production-at-scale, and patient-pairing, without the limitations of current approaches. Tevogen’s goal is to open the vast and unprecedented potential of developing personalized immunotherapies for large patient populations impacted by common cancers and viral infections.
Tevogen announced the completion of patient enrollment in the Proof-of-Concept clinical trial of its lead product, TVGN-489, for ambulatory, acute-risk COVID-19 patients, with no dose-limiting toxicities or significant treatment-related adverse events observed for any patient at any dose level.
TVGN-489 is a genetically unmodified, off-the-shelf, allogeneic cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocyte (CTL) product with activity against multiple, precise targets across the entire SARS-CoV-2 genome.
