Sana Biotechnology publishes data showing SC291 evaded immune detection

Sana Biotechnology announced the publication in Blood of an abstract providing initial clinical data from the first patient treated at the lowest dose in the ongoing ARDENT Phase 1 clinical trial with SC291, a hypoimmune, or HIP-modified allogeneic CD19-directed CAR T cell therapy. SC291 appeared safe and well tolerated, evaded immune detection, and induced a partial response in a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL. ARDENT is a Phase 1 study evaluating safety and tolerability of SC291 in patients with CLL and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Treatment in this dose escalation study is ongoing, and the company expects to present more data from this study at a later date in an appropriate venue. “These are the first clinical data demonstrating that our HIP technology can engineer allogeneic cells to evade adaptive and innate immune detection and rejection in the context of an intact immune system, overcoming the key challenge in unlocking the potential of allogeneic cells,” said Gary Meininger, Sana‘s chief medical officer. “These data suggest the potential of SC291 to persist and attack cancer cells in a manner consistent with autologous cells, which combined with scaled manufacturing, encourage us about both the opportunity for SC291 and our other HIP-modified cells to provide clinical benefit for patients. The data were published as part of an abstract submitted over the summer, and we look forward to sharing more data from this ongoing clinical trial that we expect will more clearly outline SC291’s profile.”