E!115376 REPRINT, Asgard Therapeutics AB

Purpose and goal:

An important hallmark of cancer is the ability to evade the immune system, and only 20% of patients respond to the new immunotherapies. Asgard Therapeutics is developing a gene therapy, TrojanDC that reprograms cancer cells to become immunogenic again, so the immune system can detect and eliminate them. In this project we will demonstrate TrojanDC’s efficacy and safety in vitro and in-vivo, thereby enabling GMP-like production and regulatory filing for first-in-human (FIH) studies.

Expected results and effects:

This project aims to obtain definitive proof-of-principle for the use of TrojanDC, a first-in-class gene therapy for the treatment of solid tumors, in particular Melanoma stage 3-4. The main results of this project are ex vivo translational validation in human models, in vivo efficacy validation and safety and pharmacology evaluation. Completion of this project represents a major inflection point for Series B investment.

Approach and implementation:

In the “REPRINT - REPRogramming tumors INTo immune cells: a revolutionary gene therapy to treat cancer” project, Asgard Therapeutics AB, a Swedish start-up company joins forces with Lund University (Sweden), and two other partners in France and Switzerland. Leveraging in vitro and in vivo proof-of-concept data generated in this project, we will be in an excellent position to attract investment and initiate FIH phase I/II studies.