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Australian researchers drive CAR-T anti-cancer therapies
By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>
AN AUSTRALIAN biotech company has been the first to get Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in the US for its work with CAR-T therapy, a type of personalised cancer immunotherapy treatment.
Basically, CAR-T stands for ‘Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cell’. It’s named after the chimera, the fire breathing monster in Greek mythology made up of different animal parts.
CAR-T therapy uses a specific type of immune cell, called a ‘T cell’. T cells are one type of immune cell present in the blood stream and it can be helpful to think about them as ‘soldiers’ that are constantly surveying the landscape to look for threats in the form of microbes, bacteria or viruses and, in some cases, cancer cells.
For CAR-T, the T cells are genetically altered in the laboratory, using something like a friendly virus. They are armed with something on their surface so they can recognise, bind to and destroy specific cancer cells.
Once the CAR-T cells have been ‘armed’ they are grown into the hundreds of millions, or billions, and reinfused into a patient, so that ultimately a patient’s own immune system can hunt down and fight their cancer. 
Unique approach to obstructing cancer growth
Deborah Rathjen, the CEO of Carina said the company had a unique approach to fighting cancers.
Dr Rathjen is an established Australian biotech leader. She has negotiated deals with a value of more than $800 million, including partnerships with MSD, J&J (AbbVie), Celgene, Nycomed (Takeda), Merck KGaA and Chiesi Group.
Dr Rathjen is a former chair of the AusBiotech Board and contributes to a number of national biotech advisory bodies. She has led biotech companies in the US, Europe and Australia.
Carina focuses only on drivers of solid cancers, the cancer stem cell factor which is the seed of the cancers.
“It’s the basic biology that enables a cancer cell to proliferate unchecked,” Dr Rathjen told Talking Business.
“They’re important not only in the initiation of cancer but also important for allowing cancer to grow unchecked. These cancer stem cell factors are more commonly found in patients that have undergone unsuccessful chemotherapy.
“Think of Hansel and Gretel following the breadcrumbs,” Dr Rathjen said. “But in this case, it’s something that’s going to fight your cancer.” 
First Aussie biotech to get CAR-T USA FDA approval
Dr Rathjen said Carina was the first Australian biotech focused on CAR-T therapy that had gone to the FDA and received approval to undertake a clinical development program – and to conduct trials in Australia.
Carina was a spinout from one of Australia’s Co-operative Research Centres – the Cell Therapy Manufacturing CRC that focused on cell manufacturing technologies – which brought together all the related researchers across Australia.
“It was about the philosophy of using Australian service providers wherever possible, building more knowledge in the Australian ecosystem around what it takes to have a new Car-T therapy, newly discovered in Australia,” she said.
“Of course, we are now talking to US sites as we get closer to starting the Phase 2. We will bring on a couple of US sites but it was important to the values of Carina that we undertake our initial clinical trial in Australia and help build that network of service providers that could successfully develop and, importantly, provide for those advanced manufacturing skills,” Dr Rathjen said.
“That’s part of our ethos, making sure that technology that was developed in the CRC could be around (for) continuous development in Australia and to continue to build that skill and expertise that everyone is looking for around advanced manufacturing capability.”
Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness
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