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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 02, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rubius Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:RUBY), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that is generating red blood cells and bioengineering them into an entirely new class of cellular medicines, today announced that the company presented preclinical data from its emerging oncology pipeline of Red Cell Therapeutics™ at the 2019 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in Atlanta.
RCT™ oncology product candidates are engineered to express combinations of co-stimulatory molecules and cytokines on the cell surface in their natural conformation that directly engage T and NK cells to activate the adaptive and innate immune systems through direct cell-cell interaction, replicating how the immune system naturally functions, to attack and kill tumors. Additionally, and in contrast to adoptive or autologous cell therapy approaches that require engineering a patient’s own T cells, Rubius Therapeutics has created artificial antigen presenting cells (aAPCs) that are designed to induce a tumor-specific immune response and dramatically expand tumor-specific T cells in vivo. These T cells are then expected to traffic to tumors and deliver an anti-tumor effect.
“Today, Rubius Therapeutics presented compelling preclinical data from our growing oncology pipeline, supporting our potentially groundbreaking approach in immuno-oncology,” said Pablo J. Cagnoni, M.D., chief executive officer of Rubius Therapeutics. “The Red Cell Therapeutics (RCTs) RTX-240 (4-1BBL and IL-15TP) and RTX-224 (4-1BBL and IL-12) each potently stimulated different components of the immune system and demonstrate a potentially wide therapeutic window, impressive antitumor activity and no observed toxicity when compared to agonists antibodies or recombinant cytokines. Additionally, RTX-224 in combination with anti-PD-1 antibody demonstrated substantial tumor shrinkage in a difficult-to-treat MC38 colon cancer model. We also presented data showing that our RCT artificial antigen presenting cells, or RTX-aAPCs, activate and significantly expand antigen-specific T cells to reduce tumor burden with no observed toxicity. These unique, allogeneic cell therapy product candidates could transform the immuno-oncology treatment landscape.”
Data Summaries
RTX-240 (4-1BBL and IL-15TP) Red Cell Therapeutic Product Candidate
RTX-224 (4-1BBL and IL-12) Red Cell Therapeutic Product Candidate
Red Cell Therapeutic Artificial Antigen-Presenting Cell (aAPC)
About Rubius Therapeutics Oncology Approach
RCT product candidates can be engineered to express combinations of co-stimulatory molecules and cytokines on the cell surface in their natural conformation to directly engage T and NK cells to activate the adaptive and innate immune systems. The goal is to stimulate these immune cells to proliferate, activate, migrate and, ultimately, to attack and kill tumors. Rubius Therapeutics’ lead oncology candidates each are designed to stimulate the immune system in different ways and provide several benefits over existing immuno-oncology approaches: 1) the expression of natural ligands in the appropriate conformation and in synergistic combinations is expected to provide a more potent activation of the immune system; 2) RCTs are confined to the vasculature versus administered systemically, which is expected to result in an improved safety profile; and 3) as a result, RCTs are expected to have a broader therapeutic window.
Additionally, and in contrast to adoptive or autologous cell therapy approaches that require engineering a patient’s own T cells, Rubius Therapeutics has created artificial antigen presenting cells (aAPCs) that are designed to induce a tumor-specific immune response and dramatically expand tumor-specific T cells in vivo. These T cells are then expected to traffic to tumors and deliver a potent anti-tumor effect.
About Rubius Therapeutics
Rubius Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of medicines called Red Cell Therapeutics™. The Company’s proprietary RED PLATFORM® was designed to genetically engineer and culture Red Cell Therapeutics™ that are selective, potent and off-the-shelf allogeneic cellular therapies for the potential treatment of several diseases across multiple therapeutic areas. Rubius’ initial focus is to advance RCT™ product candidates for the treatment of rare diseases, cancer and autoimmune diseases by leveraging three distinct therapeutic modalities — cellular shielding, potent cell-cell interaction and tolerance induction. For more information, visit www.rubiustx.com or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, including, without limitation, statements regarding our expectations regarding the therapeutic potential of our RCTs, the expected timing and progress of our RCT product candidates, the timeline for us to file an IND for RTX-240, and our strategy, business plans and focus. The words “may,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “goal,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “project,” “potential,” “continue,” “target” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Any forward-looking statements in this press release are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and important factors that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements contained in this press release, including, without limitation, those risks and uncertainties related to the development of our RCT product candidates and their therapeutic potential and other risks identified in our SEC filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, and subsequent filings with the SEC. We caution you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. We disclaim any obligation to publicly update or revise any such statements to reflect any change in expectations or in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statements may be based, or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release represent our views only as of the date hereof and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. We explicitly disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
Contacts:
Lori Melançon
Vice President, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations
+1 (617) 949-5296
lori.melancon@rubiustx.com
Media Contact:
Dan Budwick
1AB
+1 (973) 271-6085
dan@1abmedia.com