Cell Therapies at Peter Mac powers ASX cancer plays

Several ASX-listed companies have partnered with Cell Therapies, based at Peter Mac – Australia’s only facility capable of manufacturing CAR-T and other cell therapies at commercial scale.

Cell Therapies has become pivotal for several ASX biotechs. Pic via Getty Images

• Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre is Australia's only public hospital dedicated to cancer care, research and education

• It is home to Australia’s only biomedical facility capable of manufacturing CAR T-cells and other cell therapies at commercial scale – operated by Cell Therapies

• Several ASX companies have partnered with Cell Therapies as they work to develop their promising cancer therapeutics

Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre – aka Peter Mac – is Australia’s only public hospital dedicated to cancer care, research and education.

Peter Mac has Australia’s most extensive cancer research site in Australia, with more than 700 laboratory and clinical researchers, nurses, and support staff.

Since its humble beginnings in 1949, the centre has been at the forefront of innovation in cancer diagnostics and treatment.

It is a global leader in nuclear medicine and an early adopter of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging for cancer diagnosis.

This year, the centre plans to evaluate GE HealthCare’s next-generation total-body PET/CT scanner, designed to improve cancer detection, staging, and treatment planning.

In partnership with the University of Melbourne, Peter Mac recently established the Collaborative Centre for Genomic Cancer Medicine.

The Wilson Centre for Blood Cancer Genomics and Victorian Centre for Functional Genomics are also located at Peter Mac.

The cancer centre actively partners in clinical trials with pharmaceutical companies of all sizes – from global giants to smaller players – giving patients access to cutting-edge treatments.

And crucially Australia’s largest TGA licensed cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), Cell Therapies Pty Ltd, is co-located within Peter Mac.

Cell Therapies’ sovereign advanced manufacturing facility and highly-skilled workforce support clinical trial and commercial supply of innovative cell-based therapies such as Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies, for the treatment of cancer and other diseases.

It was the commercial manufacturing partner for Novartis’ Kymriah – the first CAR T-cell therapy approved by the US FDA back in 2017.

"Our state-of-the-art clean rooms and production and testing facilities in Melbourne rank among the best in the world and paired with a highly specialised workforce, play a crucial role in enabling our Australian partners to advance the development of cutting-edge cell and gene therapies," Cell Therapies CEO Dr Bev Menner told Stockhead.

Cell Therapies is integral to the success of several Australian companies focusing on CAR T-cell therapies and other cell-based therapies, which are showing promise in the treatment of cancers and other life-threatening conditions.

AdAlta advances Cell Therapies with help from pioneer

AdAlta (ASX:1AD) and venture capital firm SYNthesis BioVentures Fund (SYNBV) launched AdCella in 2024, with an East to West strategy to bring cellular immunotherapies from Asia, particularly China, into Western markets.

AdAlta managing director Dr Tim Oldham was also CEO of Cell Therapies from 2013 to 2017 and said Peter Mac’s capabilities were critical to the success of AdCella’s East to West strategy.

"Peter Mac’s long history and capability in the delivery of CAR T-cell therapy is pivotal to our ability to attract innovation from Asia and further develop those technologies in Australia," Oldham told Stockhead.

"Without those capabilities Peter Mac has developed we wouldn’t be able to execute our East to West cell therapy strategy."

Oldham said many globally leading cancer hospitals realised that to be at the forefront of new technologies such as CAR T-cell therapies they needed to be able to manufacture them onsite.

"In Peter Mac’s case they make their world-class cell therapies manufacturing capabilities available to not just their own researchers but other companies on a contract basis," he said.

Cell Therapies manufactures Arovella's lead asset for clinical trial

Arovella Therapeutics (ASX:ALA) also uses Cell Therapies as its CDMO to manufacture its lead therapeutic candidate ALA-101 as it prepares for a phase I clinical trial program.

Arovella’s proprietary allogeneic (one to many) platform uses healthy donor-derived invariant Natural Killer T (iNKT) cells, engineered with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to target specific cancer antigens.

ALA-101 combines iNKT cells with a CAR that targets CD19, a protein commonly found on B-cell blood cancers like lymphoma and leukaemia.

Arovella has licensed the manufacturing process, which is patent protected, from Imperial College London.

"Arovella’s worked with Cell Therapies for quite some time and over that journey we’ve developed an excellent working relationship and are highly impressed with the breadth and manufacturing work they can undertake," CEO Dr Michael Baker told Stockhead.

Arovella is currently completing manufacturing of clinical batches of ALA-101 with Cell Therapies in preparation for first-in-human studies and aims to file an investigational new drug (IND) application with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

This will enable the company to start is phase I trial for ALA-101 in CD19-positive blood cancer patients in CY25. Arovella also plans to present proof-of-concept data for its CLDN18.2-CAR-iNKT cell gastric cancer program in coming months.

"Arovella is excited to take ALA-101 into clinical trials and the partnership between Arovella and Cell Therapies has been critical to make that happen," Baker said.

"As we embark on our strategy to expand our pipeline with new programs targeting solid tumours, we look forward to strengthening our partnership with Cell Therapies."

Chimeric looks to manufacture and bring trials to Peter Mac

Clinical stage cell therapy company Chimeric Therapeutics (ASX:CHM) is also partnering with Cell Therapies to explore the potential to manufacture its CAR-T assets in Australia.

Chimeric CEO Dr Rebecca McQualter told Stockhead that while the company is listed on the ASX, its operations have been US-based.

"That is great for active trials running in the US but because we’re an ASX company and focused on local shareholders we’re focused on bringing our technology home," she said.

Chimeric has three CAR T & NK cell assets all in clinical trials, two of which it would like to bring to Australia, funding permitted.

It has an ongoing phase 1/2 clinical trial for its novel CHM CDH17 CAR T-cell therapy targeting advanced colorectal cancer.

"Unfortunately, the rate at which people are being diagnosed with bowel cancer from 20 to 30 years old is significantly increasing so we’d like to bring a site to Australia so we’re working to be able to do that with Cell Therapies," McQualter said.

Their second program CLTX CAR T is in a phase 1B clinical trial in recurrent/progressive glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer.

"Peter Mac has an amazing brain tumour CAR T program so because we have a site running in Austin, Texas they also want to open a site and that means manufacturing with Cell Therapies," McQualter said.

"We can do everything end-to-end at Peter Mac and don’t have to go anywhere else but we’re still in the phase of funding our amazing ideas."

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While AdAlta and Arovella Therapuetics are Stockhead advertisers, the companies did not sponsor this article.