ASH: A cell therapy startup with roots in Irv Weissman's lab nearly wipes out a chronic side effect in early trials
While a hematopoietic stem cell transplant is the best option for some patients with blood cancer, the procedure can lead to dangerous complications, such as graft-versus-host disease. Three entrepreneurs launched Orca Bio a few years ago with a potential solution — and at ASH, they unveiled some early data showing patients in two trials were largely able to avoid the devastating side effect.
Just 3% of patients on Orca-T — Orca Bio’s second generation evolution of current cell therapies for blood disorders — experienced moderate-to-severe chronic GvHD in two studies, compared to 43% of patients who received standard of care allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplants (alloHSCT), the biotech announced on Saturday.
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