A recording of the ASX small/mid cap conference. Jenn presented...

A recording of the ASX small/mid cap conference. Jenn presented very well again last week. Super confident yet quietly effective in her delivery. As mentioned by a few posters. I think we will see another cell therapy added to the pipeline sooner rather than later. In Jen's words "very shortly". It's great to have this sort of confidence in a board and management knowing it is far from their first rodeo, we know it's going to be next generation and probably allogeneic (off the shelf - not derived from the patients own cells).

Looking forward to seeing the first readout for CHM-1101 phase I update as Jenn said later this year. What really sets CHMs lead program apart is outlined very well in the abstract on Science translational medicine from March 2020.

"Although chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have demonstrated signs of antitumor activity against glioblastoma (GBM), (so far in other trials) tumour heterogeneity remains a critical challenge. To achieve broader and more effective GBM targeting, we developed a peptide-bearing CAR exploiting the GBM-binding potential of chlorotoxin (CLTX). We find that CLTX peptide binds a great proportion of tumours and constituent tumour cells. CAR T cells using CLTX as the targeting domain (CLTX-CAR T cells) mediate potent anti-GBM activity and efficiently target tumours lacking expression of other GBM-associated antigens. Treatment with CLTX-CAR T cells resulted in tumour regression in orthotopic xenograft GBM tumour models. CLTX-CAR T cells do not exhibit observable off-target effector activity against normal cells or after adoptive transfer into mice. Effective targeting by CLTX-CAR T cells requires cell surface expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2. Our results pioneer a peptide toxin in CAR design, expanding the repertoire of tumour-selective CAR T cells with the potential to reduce antigen escape"

Link https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32132216/

The key factor in the future monetisation/success of this molecule is - CHM has secured the IP and licensing around having exclusivity to its use. If this 36 amino acid scorpion venom peptide can show the safety and efficacy described in pre-clinical above, it will be a game-changer. And you have to think outside of GBM what sort of other collaborative cell constructs will it be used in as the key binding agent in the future? Royalties, buyout’s, the mind boggles at to what it could be worth.

The abstract refers to the reduction of antigen escape. This is a cell therapies ability rid cancer from the body and avoid cancer reoccurrence. If CHM-1101 can achieve this it will be exactly what Jenn talks about "a cure". Which is not a word used especially in solid tumors. Only a few months until we get some insight as to just how good it is.