Plasticell, Anthony Nolan Enter Clinical Pact

Plasticell will collaborate with research organization Anthony Nolan to advance clinical development of Plasticell’s ex vivo expanded cord-blood derived hematopoietic stem cell product.

Allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a curative therapy for patients with life-threating haematological disorders. Cord blood (CB) is an ideal starting point for allogeneic HSCT as it can be collected and banked without compromising the donor and is more easily matched to recipients relative to bone marrow–derived material. However, the limited number of stem cells available in a single cord unit limit their use to paediatric patients and can cause delayed engraftment.

Plasticell has developed a small-molecule driven, GMP-compliant method of expanding hematopoietic stem cells from cord blood, bone marrow and peripheral blood. The therapy has been developed in collaboration with NHS Blood and Transplant, the University of Oxford and the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult.

“Despite our success in connecting donors and recipients of HSCT through the Anthony Nolan stem cell register, we currently fail to find a suitable match for some of the patients waiting for a stem cell transplant. We see Plasticell’s expanded cord blood product as an exciting opportunity to save the lives of these patients and to improve the treatment outcome for many more blood cancer patients, ” commented Dr Diana Hernandez, Head of Immunotherapy at Anthony Nolan.

“The partnership with Anthony Nolan and its network of transplant centres and surgeons will accelerate clinical translation of this therapy by providing world-class clinical expertise, access to cord blood banking and experience in cord blood manipulation, and importantly will greatly facilitate patient recruitment which can be a bottleneck in clinical development of expanded cord blood products.” added Dr Yen Choo, founder and Executive Chairman of Plasticell.