The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in the US and Phoenix SENOLYTIX have announced a worldwide cross-licensing agreement to advance the progress of inducible switch technologies for cell and gene therapy applications.

Phoenix will be supplied with the therapeutic agent, rimiducid, by MD Anderson and will receive assistance in obtaining regulatory clearance for a new formulation administered through intramuscular or subcutaneous injection, as an alternative to the conventional intravenous infusion.

In exchange, MD Anderson will have exclusive access to the new rimiducid formulation to be used with its switch technologies within its cell therapy platforms.

Rimiducid will initiate these technologies, which include the CaspaCIDe safety switch and the GoDCVaX, GoTCR, GoCAR-T and Dual Switch technologies that MD Anderson has acquired from Bellicum Pharmaceuticals.

Along with rimiducid, are employed as a safeguard to control the activation of cell and gene therapies.

The CaspaCIDe safety switch has been incorporated by the Institute for Cell Therapy Discovery & Innovation researchers at MD Anderson into a variety of cell therapy initiatives, notably in chimeric antigen receptor natural killer cell therapies.

The institution offered non-exclusive licences for the inducible switch technologies to biopharma companies and other academic entities.

David Spencer, co-founder and chief tech officer of Phoenix and Bellicum's scientific founder. originally developed the CaspaCIDe technology.

The ApoptiCIDe platform, representing an advancement of the original technology, has been developed by Phoenix to be compatible with the new formulation of rimiducid.

Phoenix has already employed this technology in its primary products, which are intended to selectively eliminate specific cell populations linked to ageing and obesity-related conditions.

In line with the latest agreement, MD Anderson and Phoenix have announced that they will set up a scientific advisory board to support the ongoing development of these technologies for MD Anderson’s cell therapy programmes.

Spencer stated: “We are excited about the broad medical opportunities presented by the dimerizer applications that would be enhanced with this new formulation of rimiducid.

“This reflects a potentially major advance that should further expand the adoption of cell and gene therapies.”