In an exclusive interview with The Fly, Sangamo Therapeutics (SGMO) CEO Sandy Macrae and COO Mark McClung talked about the company, its pipeline, upcoming data readouts, COVID-related delays and much more.
CAR-TREG SPACE: Sangamo is one of the farthest along in the industry in the CAR-TREG space and may be the first to dose using this new type of genomic medicine in humans. CEO Sandy Macrae attributes the company's success in the space to more than "just science." "Many of the other TREG companies are spinouts of academic groups and they're great scientists. But having manufacturing expertise allows you to look after the TREGs and grow them and prepare them to the standards of GMP and the regulators' demand. And we feel that’s the journey that other companies still have to go through. The idea that we're about to dose the first patient is testament to lots of process development, manufacturing advances, understanding of TREGs… and others still need to go through that journey," the executive explained to The Fly.
UPCOMING DATA READOUTS: Sangamo has several data readouts expected in 2022, which COO Mark McClung sees as "really important catalysts over the next 12 months." "The first is related to our partner program with Pfizer [PFE], which is the Hemophilia A program and is in Phase 3. We're anticipating that the clinical hold put on by Pfizer and the agency will be lifted shortly and we will continue to advance the enrollment in that trial. At this point, we're still confident we will have a competitive profile versus the BioMarin [BMRN] product. The second would be our Fabry disease program. (…) Over the course of 2022, you can expect additional data presentations which will provide the update on the patients. We will most likely share some of that in an upcoming congress," the COO explained. "The TX200 kidney transplant study with our TX200 compound, which is a CAR-TREG, is the first, we believe, in human trial with CAR-TREGs. We've enrolled the first patient in the trial and are expecting to dose the first two patients by the middle of 2022," McClung added.
PRECLINICAL STUDIES: Sangamo also has several treatments in cell therapy and in genome engineering currently in preclinical studies. "Everything is moving forward beautifully. Until we get to the IND, we tend to keep the cards close to our chest on the benefits of our programs," CEO Macrae told The Fly. "But related to the TX200, which is the renal transplant subject, we have TREG programs being developed in multiple sclerosis for example. In our CNS portfolio, we have very interesting assets in important neurological diseases moving forward and closer to clinic. We will publish results on them during the year. We're an unusual company with such a broad and deep portfolio, and a pipeline that keeps on giving and it's all due to our technology which can be applied to so many areas of unmet medical need," the executive noted.
PARTNERSHIPS: Biogen (BIIB), Novartis (NVS), Takeda (TAK) and Kite (GILD) are among big pharmaceutical and biotech companies who have partnered with Sangamo. "We're always speaking with people about our technology. We think they find Sangamo's technology intriguing and when they spend time with our scientists, they find it exciting. For us, it's a balance we always have to find on whether we develop something ourselves or with a partner. Our partnerships bring expertise. Biogen really understands Alzheimer's with their biologists and physicians, and they have the commercial team to make a success of the medicine. It's not only about money but also about expertise. They also bring the validation of our technology, that they looked at what we were doing and decided that they were going to invest this much money says that there was something solid about it," Sangamo's CEO pointed out.
COVID-RELATED IMPACT: The ongoing pandemic has impacted a wide range of sectors worldwide and the biotech and pharmaceutical space hasn't been immune to COVID-related delays and supply shortages. "In our early cell therapy programs, we're seeing some delays in getting certain components of the manufacturing process, including these bags that we utilize. So, it is impacting us. There is nothing on critical path that has been significantly impacted to date but there's potential that if the supply chain is not resolved, it could affect things. We did have some delays in our clinical trials due to COVID where the sites, for example, in our TX200 trial - which we could have gotten up and running earlier - were just not doing kidney transplantation because they were prioritizing the facilities for COVID treatment. But since then, we've opened a number of sites and we're now seeing going back and doing the transplant again which is good news. We're not immune but our operations have been mostly on track," COO Mark McClung said.
"Meet the Company" is The Fly's recurring series of exclusive short interviews with Executive Officers to offer a deeper look inside the company. A more detailed version of this interview to follow.
For more on Sangamo's CAR-TREG program click here.
For more on Sangamo's upcoming data readouts click here.
For more on Sangamo's preclinical pipeline click here.
For more on Sangamo's partnerships click here.
For more on COVID-related impact click here.
Sangamo
+0.25 (+4.22%)
Biogen
+0.45 (+0.19%)
Pfizer
-0.29 (-0.54%)
Takeda
-0.11 (-0.76%)
Gilead
-0.72 (-1.02%)
BioMarin
+0.68 (+0.78%)
Novartis
-0.27 (-0.30%)