CareDx Announces Collaborations to Develop Cellular Therapy Diagnostics
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 14, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — CareDx, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNA), a leading precision medicine company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of clinically differentiated, high-value healthcare solutions for transplant patients and caregivers, announced today a biopharma research partnership for AlloCell. AlloCell is a surveillance solution for patients who have received engineered-cell transplants for allogeneic cell therapy.
Allogeneic cell therapy is a rapidly growing area of clinical development with research underway for applications in oncology, cardiovascular, neurological, autoimmune, and infectious disease. In oncology, initial CAR T-cell therapies were created by genetically modifying a patient’s own immune cells to target specific cancer cells before transplanting them back into the patient. With allogeneic therapies, the CAR T-cells are manufactured from cells of healthy donors for “off-the-shelf” use in patients, simplifying the manufacturing process, and reducing patients’ wait time from diagnosis to treatment.
CareDx has over 20 years of expertise in transplant monitoring, enabling the development of AlloCell to monitor allogeneic cell therapies in partnership with cellular therapy companies.
“Allogeneic CAR-T is the next stage of immuno-oncology therapy, and we expect it to have a transformative impact on our patients with an increasing range of indications,” said Stefan Ciurea, MD, Associate Professor in the Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. “However, with many different cell therapy constructs expected and variability in patients’ responses to therapy, there is a significant need for a standardized diagnostic measurement of cellular kinetics and persistence to help personalize treatment. AlloCell has the potential to have significant clinical utility to help manage these allogeneic cell therapy patients.”
“With the goal of improving transplant patient outcomes at the core of what we do, we are glad to begin cellular therapy collaborations to help patients with life-saving immune cell transplants,” said Peter Maag, CEO of CareDx.
About CareDx
CareDx, Inc., headquartered in South San Francisco, California, is a leading precision medicine solutions company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of clinically differentiated, high-value healthcare solutions for transplant patients and caregivers. CareDx offers testing services, products, and digital healthcare solutions along the pre- and post-transplant patient journey, and is the leading provider of genomics-based information for transplant patients. For more information, please visit: www.CareDx.com.
CONTACTS:
CareDx, Inc.
Sasha King
Chief Marketing Officer
415-287-2393
sking@caredx.com
Investor Relations
Greg Chodaczek
347-620-7010
investor@caredx.com
