CytoAgents - a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to developing a safe and effective treatment for Cytokine Release Syndrome (CRS) - announced that it has been awarded a $2 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, the third NIH grant in four years.
This funding will accelerate the development of its lead drug candidate, CTO1681, an investigational new drug that uses a novel approach designed to prevent and mitigate Cytokine Release Syndrome in patients receiving CAR T-Cell therapy. And this is an area of great unmet medical need as the majority of patients undergoing CAR T treatment for their cancer experience CRS and associated neurotoxicity.
CytoAgents has been developing innovative pharmaceutical products to treat CRS associated with life-threatening conditions, diseases and disorders. And CRS - also called cytokine storm - is caused by excessive cytokine production and can be triggered by a range of diseases and treatments. And certain advanced immunotherapies in the oncology space such as CAR T-Cell and Bispecific Antibody therapies suffer from high incidences of associated CRS. The company expects effective CRS management to support greater accessibility to and broader adoption of these highly effective therapies in the clinic.
CytoAgents is also enrolling patients in a Phase 1b/2a clinical trial evaluating CTO1681 to treat CRS in lymphoma patients receiving CAR T-Cell Therapy. This clinical trial is being conducted at multiple U.S. sites and investigates the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of different doses of CTO1681.
This SBIR grant is non-dilutive funding from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R44CA287634 and will support the research of CTO1681.
KEY QUOTES:
"We are deeply honored to receive a third NIH grant, which further validates the importance and potential of our research at CytoAgents. Our team is committed to leveraging this support to push the boundaries of scientific discovery and bring impactful therapies to patients in need."
-Arthur P. Bertolino MD, PhD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer at CytoAgents