- Two accepted abstracts will be presented virtually in a prerecorded poster presentation
Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium - Celyad (Euronext Brussels and Paris, and Nasdaq: CYAD), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of CAR-T cell therapies, today announced that two abstracts have been accepted for poster presentation at the 2020 American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Virtual Scientific Program, which will be held from May 29-31, 2020. The first poster will focus on CYAD-101, the company's first-in-class, non-gene edited, allogeneic CAR-T program for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer, while the second poster will highlight the company's next-generation, short-hairpin RNA (shRNA) technology platform used in the company's CYAD-200 series of allogeneic CAR-T product candidates.
Filippo Petti, chief executive officer of Celyad, noted, "We're excited to be sharing an update at the upcoming ASCO Annual Meeting on our industry-leading allogeneic CAR-T candidate CYAD-101 for the treatment of solid tumors, as well as providing an important update on progress with our next-generation shRNA platform, which allows for knockdown of multiple genes without the use of gene-editing in a single CAR-T construct."
ASCO 2020 Presentation Details Abstract 3032: CYAD-101: An innovative non-gene edited allogeneic CAR-T for solid tumor cancer therapy
Date & Time: Virtual poster presentation available May 29-31, 2020 Abstract 3103: Single vector multiplexed shRNA provides a non-gene edited strategy to concurrently knockdown the expression of multiple genes in CAR T cells
Date & Time: Virtual poster presentation available May 29-31, 2020 The abstracts published today will be available on May 13 on ASCO's website. Following presentation at the meeting, the posters will be available on Celyad's website.
About CYAD-101
CYAD-101 is an investigational, non-gene edited, allogeneic (healthy donor derived) CAR-T therapy engineered to co-express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) based on NKG2D, a receptor expressed on natural killer (NK) cells that binds to eight stress-induced ligands and the novel inhibitory peptide TIM (T cell receptor (TCR) Inhibitory Molecule). The expression of TIM reduces signaling of the TCR complex, which is responsible for graft-versus host disease (GvHD).
About shRNA Platform and CYAD-200 Series
The Company is focused on the development of its proprietary non-gene edited allogeneic short hairpin RNA (shRNA) SMARTvector technology platform through the CYAD-200 series of product candidates. The Company is currently evaluating several shRNA-based allogeneic CAR-T candidates, including CYAD-211, an allogeneic CAR-T therapy targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) for the treatment of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.
About Colorectal Cancer
Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer among both men and women worldwide and is the fourth most common in terms of mortality. In 2018, approximately 1.8 million people were diagnosed with colorectal cancer, with about 140,000 and 500,000 diagnoses in the United States and Europe, respectively. According to data from ASCO, approximately 40% of patients are diagnosed with early-stage, localized-stage disease. The five-year survival rate of localized disease is approximately 90%. In patients where the cancer has spread to distant parts of the body, as in metastatic colorectal cancer, the five-year survival rate drops to approximately 15%.
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CELYAD ONCOLOGY SA 
