• ALLO-605 Demonstrated Enhanced Killing of Multiple Myeloma Cells and Persistence Relative to BCMA CAR T
  • TurboCAR Technology Represents a Key Component to the Company’s Three-Pronged Clinical Strategy Targeting BCMA for Multiple Myeloma
  • Investigational New Drug (IND) Application for ALLO-605 Expected in the First Half of 2021

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA I December 07, 2020 I Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALLO), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of allogeneic CAR T (AlloCAR T™) therapies for cancer, today announced preclinical findings of ALLO-605, the Company’s first TurboCAR™ clinical candidate and next-generation AlloCAR T therapy for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, will be presented in a poster session today at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Allogene developed the TurboCAR technology to further enhance the potency of cell therapies. This technology allows ligand independent, cytokine signaling to be engineered selectively into CAR T cells. TurboCARs have the potential to enhance AlloCAR T cell proliferation and overcome T cell exhaustion. The technology is being deployed initially as part of the Company’s three-pronged approach to targeting BCMA in patients with multiple myeloma. Results from the preclinical studies demonstrated that ALLO-605 showed enhanced cytokine secretion, polyfunctionality, improved serial killing activity in vitro, and enhanced eradication of tumors in animal models of myeloma.

“Allogene continues to innovate across our AlloCAR T platform with next generation technologies that can be applied to multiple programs,” said Rafael Amado, M.D., Executive Vice President of Research & Development and Chief Medical Officer of Allogene. “The advances with TurboCAR not only support our approach to targeting BCMA, but also allow us to potentially enhance the activity of other AlloCAR T candidates. We are eager to bring ALLO-605 into the clinic and anticipate filing our first IND utilizing this novel technology in the first half of 2021.”

In a highly aggressive orthotopic mouse model of multiple myeloma, ALLO-605 demonstrated an increase in peak expansion and persistence compared to standard BCMA CAR T cells, resulting in rapid and durable antitumor responses. No bone marrow or extramedullary relapses were seen in mice treated with ALLO-605 which resulted in increased survival. The expansion and persistence of ALLO-605 was dependent upon BCMA expression on the target cells and there was no evidence of TurboCAR T cell expansion in the absence of target engagement.

About Allogene Therapeutics
Allogene Therapeutics, with headquarters in South San Francisco, is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T cell (AlloCAR T™) therapies for cancer. Led by a management team with significant experience in cell therapy, Allogene is developing a pipeline of “off-the-shelf” CAR T cell therapy candidates with the goal of delivering readily available cell therapy on-demand, more reliably, and at greater scale to more patients. For more information, please visit www.allogene.com, and follow @AllogeneTx on Twitter and LinkedIn.

SOURCE: Allogene Therapeutics