About Autolus Therapeutics plc
Autolus is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation, programmed T cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. Using a broad suite of proprietary and modular T cell programming technologies, the company is engineering precisely targeted, controlled and highly active T cell therapies that are designed to better recognize cancer cells, break down their defense mechanisms and eliminate these cells. Autolus has a pipeline of product candidates in development for the treatment of hematological malignancies and solid tumors.Pipeline
AUTO1 / AUTO1-AL1 – Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and Pediatric ALL
AUTO1 is a CD19 CAR T cell investigational therapy designed to overcome the limitations in safety - while maintaining similar levels of efficacy - compared to current CD19 CAR T cell therapies. Designed to have a fast target binding off-rate to minimize excessive activation of the programmed T cells, AUTO1 may reduce toxicity and be less prone to T cell exhaustion, which could enhance persistence and improve the ability of the programmed T cells to engage in serial killing of target cancer cells. AUTO1 is currently being evaluated in two Phase 1 studies, one in pediatric ALL and one in adult ALL. The company has also now progressed the program to a potential pivotal study, AUTO1-AL1.
The AUTO1-AL1 study will enroll patients with relapsed / refractory ALL. The study will have a short Phase1b component prior to proceeding to a single arm Phase 2 study. The primary end point is overall response rate and the key secondary end points include duration of response, MRD negative CR rate and safety. The study will enroll approximately 100 patients across 30 of the leading academic and non-academic centers in the US, UK and Europe.
AUTO3 – Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL)
AUTO3 is a programmed T cell therapy containing two independent chimeric antigen receptors targeting CD19 and CD22 that have each been independently optimized for single target activity. By simultaneously targeting two B cell antigens, AUTO3 is designed to minimize relapse due to single antigen loss in patients with B cell malignancies. AUTO3 is currently being tested in diffuse large B cell lymphoma in the ALEXANDER clinical study, including a 20-patient cohort to assess feasibility of treatment in an outpatient setting.
AUTO4 – TRBC1-Positive Peripheral T Cell Lymphoma
A programmed T cell therapy for the treatment of peripheral T-cell lymphoma targeting TRBC1, employing a novel and differentiated treatment approach. AUTO4 is designed to selectively kill cancerous T cells in a manner that we believe will preserve a portion of the patient’s normal, healthy T cells to maintain immunity. Since the AUTO4 approach is a novel mechanism to target T cells, Autolus has also programmed the product candidate with a “safety switch” in order to allow physicians to manage toxicity by eliminating the programmed T cells if a patient experiences severe adverse side effects from the treatment. AUTO4 is currently being tested in a Phase I study in TRBC1-positive peripheral T cell lymphoma.
AUTO6 / AUTO6NG – Neuroblastoma
A programmed T cell therapy targeting GD2 in development for the treatment of neuroblastoma. A Phase 1 clinical trial with AUTO6 is being sponsored and conducted by Cancer Research UK, or CRUK, and preliminary data has shown initial anti-tumor activity in this solid tumor indication.
Autolus is developing AUTO6NG, a next-generation programmed T cell product candidate which is in pre-clinical development. AUTO6NG builds on preliminary proof of concept data from AUTO6. AUTO6NG incorporates additional cell programming modules to overcome immune suppressive defense mechanisms in the tumor microenvironment, in addition to endowing the CAR T cells with extended persistence capacity.