Lupagen & Humanigen to explore point-of-care CAR-T therapy

DALLAS, May 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lupagen, Inc. (www.lupagen.com), a medical device company developing first-in-class cell and gene therapy delivery technologies for CAR-T, gene editing and immunotherapy products, today announced the intent to explore the development of a bedside, point-of-care delivered CAR-T therapy with Humanigen, Inc. (OTCQB: HGEN), a biopharmaceutical company developing cutting-edge CAR-T optimization and oncology treatments.

Lupagen and Humanigen are planning work to investigate the potential of a bedside CAR-T therapy created from Humanigen's Ifabotuzumab, a first-in-class, monoclonal antibody targeting the EphA3 receptor tyrosine kinase.

"We are excited to support Humanigen's strategic objectives to deliver safer, more effective and more routine CAR-T treatments, including one with the novel EphA3 target," said Nipon Das, M.D., chief executive officer and co-founder of Lupagen.  "A bedside, closed-loop, point-of-care patient-connected system allows patient cells to be harvested, reprogrammed or modified, then reinfused at the bedside.  The potential positive impact on CAR-T and other ex-vivo autologous cell and gene therapies is enormous through lower treatment costs, increased patient access and enhanced safety and control of these powerful new therapies."

About Lupagen 

Lupagen, Inc. is a privately held early stage medical device company developing first-in-class cell and gene therapy delivery technologies for next generation CAR-T, gene editing and immunotherapy products based on their patent-pending bedside, closed-loop, point-of-care technology.

Lupagen's systems are deployed using standard apheresis-based platforms customized for a diverse range of ex-vivo autologous cell and gene therapies that require targeted genetic or cellular modification of selective populations of a patient's circulating peripheral blood mononuclear cells. 

About Humanigen 

Humanigen, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing cutting-edge CAR-T optimization and oncology treatments. Derived from the company's Humaneered^® platform, lenzilumab and ifabotuzumab are monoclonal antibodies with first-in-class mechanisms. Lenzilumab, which targets GM-CSF, is in development as a potential medicine to make CAR-T therapy safer and more effective, as well as a potential treatment for rare hematologic cancers such as chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) and juvenile myelomonoctyic leukemia (JMML). Ifabotuzumab, which targets Eph type-A receptor 3 (EphA3), is being explored as a potential treatment for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and other deadly cancers, as well as a backbone for a novel CAR-T construct and bispecific antibody platform. For more information, visit www.humanigen.com.

SOURCE Lupagen, Inc.