Horizon Discovery Group plc (LSE: HZD) (“Horizon”), a company driving the application of gene editing and gene modulation within the global life science market, today announced that Celyad (Euronext Brussels and Paris, and Nasdaq: CYAD), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of CAR-T cell-based therapies, received FDA Acceptance of Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the autologous NKG2D based CAR-T cell therapy CYAD-02 that deploys Horizon’s optimized SMARTvector™ shRNA technology. The Phase 1 trial will be the first CAR-T cell therapy to employ the SMARTvector platform. Horizon will receive an undisclosed milestone payment for the successful IND filing.
Celyad has been investigating the use of shRNAs to support the clinical development of its CAR-T cell platform. The FDA approved IND application involves CYAD-02, a next generation CAR-T cell therapy in which shRNA is employed to suppress two genes. Celyad has pre-clinical data indicating that this improves in vivo ...
