The Texas-based firm is working alongside the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to fund the open-label, multi-centre trial. Credit: Shutterstock / Nemes Laszlo.

US-based clinical-stage biotechnology company March Biosciences has announced that the Cancer Focus Fund has invested $4.8m into the former’s upcoming Phase II clinical trial investigating MB-105 in relapsed T-cell leukaemias and lymphomas.

MB-105 is a chimeric antigen receptor-T cell (CAR-T) therapy, which targets CD5, a protein that is frequently expressed in both normal and malignant T-cells.

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March Biosciences is working alongside the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to fund the open-label, multi-centre trial that will assess MB-105 in patients with CD5-positive relapsed or refractory T-cell lymphoma.

March Biosciences co-founder and CEO Sarah Hein commented: “As a Houston-invented and headquartered biotech developing an innovative cancer therapy manufactured in collaboration with Houston’s CTMC [cell therapy manufacturing centre], we are delighted that the Cancer Focus Fund is investing in our upcoming clinical trial.”

MB-105 has demonstrated a favourable safety profile in a Phase I trial (NCT03081910), which was conducted by the Baylor College of Medicine Cell and Gene Therapy Center.

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The study found that the therapy was safe and induced clinical responses in heavily treated patients. It also found that it eliminated malignant T-cells that could allow previously ineligible patients to proceed to a haematopoietic stem cell transplant,

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Hein said MB-105 has the potential to become a first-in-class life-saving therapy for relapsed T-cell lymphoma patients, who have limited treatment options.

GlobalData’s Pharmaceutical Intelligence Centre shows that there are currently nine marketed drugs in the indication of T-cell acute lymphocytic leukaemia. Additionally, there are 15 other drugs currently in Phase II trials and 20 in Phase I.

GlobalData is the parent company of Clinical Trials Arena.

A report from GlobalData forecasts that cell therapies are expected to capture 47% of the global acute lymphocytic leukaemia market by 2031, with CAR-T agents constituting 14%. It also found that in 2021 the global market for the indication stood at around $2.3bn and is expected to grow to $3.7bn by 2031.