Tevogen Bio is set to study the potential therapeutic use of its investigational Covid-19 T cell therapy, TVGN-489, in long Covid. The finding that none of the patients in the TVGN 489 proof-of-concept (POC) trial, treated for their initial Covid infection, developed long Covid to date is leading Tevogen to explore the potential of TVGN 489 to also treat long Covid.
“I’m greatly encouraged by the POC trial experience of TVGN 489 and hopeful that our investigational Covid-19 therapy will eventually offer hope to a substantial segment of Long Covid patients,” said Neal Flomenberg, Tevogen’s chief scientific officer.
“Anyone that knows someone who has been impacted by this debilitating disease understands the importance of advancing science to alleviate the suffering from long Covid,” said Tevogen CEO Ryan Saadi.
“I’m hopeful that our innovative T cell technology will eventually offer accessible immunotherapies to millions suffering from viral infections, cancers and other diseases with high unmet need.”
TVGN-489 is highly purified cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocytes (CTLs) designed to detect and kill SARS-CoV-2 infected cells. These allogeneic genetically unmodified CTLs are enriched and expanded in the lab and recognize proteins from across the entire SARS-CoV-2 genome, not just the spike protein.
In July 2022, TVGN-489 completed POC clinical trial enrollment with zero treatment-related adverse events. Patients treated were infected with a range of all Covid variants at the time, from Delta through Omicron BA.5. Additionally, each patient had co-morbidities rendering them high risk and 50% of those additionally met the definition of being immunocompromised.
Tevogen’s T cell platform
Tevogen’s next generation precision T cell platform is designed to provide increased immunologic specificity to eliminate malignant and virally infected cells, while allowing healthy cells to remain intact. Multiple targets are selected in advance with the goal of overcoming the mutational capacity of cancer cells and viruses which can otherwise allow for escape from immunologic targeting.
Tevogen is investigating its technology’s potential to overcome the primary barriers to the broad application of personalized T cell therapies: potency, purity, production-at-scale, and patient-pairing, without the limitations of current approaches.
Tevogen’s goal is to develop personalized immunotherapies for large patient populations impacted by common cancers and viral infections.
Tevogen announced the completion of patient enrollment in the proof-of-concept clinical trial of its lead product, TVGN-489, for ambulatory, acute-risk Covid-19 patients, with no dose-limiting toxicities or significant treatment-related adverse events observed for any patient at any dose level.