Australian startup Cartherics has granted Shunxi Holding Group Co. a licence to develop, manufacture and commercialise Cartherics’ autologous CAR-T cell product, CTH-004, for the treatment of multiple solid tumours including ovarian cancer in Greater China. 
 
CTH-004 has shown promising results in animal models of ovarian cancer and will be evaluated in a clinical trial under a research and development collaboration with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, announced earlier this year. 

Globally, approximately 314,000 new ovarian cancer cases and 207,000 deaths occurred in 2020.In China, a recent study revealed that the burden of ovarian cancer has shown an obvious upward trend in the past 30 years, and the increase rate accelerated significantly in recent 5 years. In the next decade, ovarian cancer burden in China will continue to rise at a higher rate than the global level.

This agreement provides Shunxi Holding Group a licence to develop, manufacture and commercialise CTH-004 for Greater China (Including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), as well as an option to negotiate rights to other CAR-T products that incorporate the licenced IP. The structure of the agreement involves a licence fee, milestone payments and royalties. 

Dr Shu Runzhe, Cartherics’ deputy CSO, will join Shunxi to lead the pre-clinical and clinical development of CTH-004 in China. Cartherics and Shunxi will share CTH-004 pre-clinical and clinical data in future. Cartherics retains all development and commercialisation rights for CTH-004 outside Greater China.