Modiblast Pharma is working to advance novel dendritic cell therapies for blood cancers into clinical development. The focus is on addressing the core problem of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS): the extremely high relapse rate after successful initial therapy.
The Modiblast approach (3 patents granted) combines immunomodulators to stimulate blasts (cancer cells) to differentiate into leukemia-specific dendritic cells (DCleu) in the patient (in vivo). This induces both innate and adaptive immune cells in the blood and tissue to kill remaining or recurrent blasts and generate memory cells.
Unlike CAR-T, for example, there is no need to identify and select specific target molecules. Furthermore, complicated and expensive ex vivo cell extraction and preparation procedures, as well as GMP facilities, are not required.
Our long-term goal is to provide an easy-to-use, self-administered medication that can stabilize remissions or halt disease progression. This therapy can also normalize platelet/neutrophil counts.
The next step in clinical development is a phase 1a/2b study, which recently passed the scientific advice of the BfArM.
