CytoMed Therapeutics Limited (NASDAQ: GDTC) ("CytoMed" or "Company"), a Singapore-based biopharmaceutical company focused on harnessing its proprietary technologies to develop novel donor-derived cell-based immunotherapies for the treatment of various cancers, announced that the chimeric antigen receptor gamma delta T cell (CAR-γδ T cell) technology, which is exclusively licensed from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), has been granted a patent by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA).

"With our first-in-human trial for CAR-γδ T cells set to begin in Singapore in the second half of 2023, and the recent successful recruitment of our first blood donor for the trial, we are especially thrilled to learn that our technology has received a Chinese patent," said Peter Choo, Chairman of CytoMed. "We have also started to seek partnerships in the vast China market."

The patent titled "Gamma Delta T Cells and a Method of Augmenting the Tumoricidal Activity of the Same" covers technologies for the clinical-scale expansion of γδ T cells from a small amount of donor peripheral blood cells, as well as the modification of the expanded γδ T cells to incorporate a CAR that enables the modified cells to recognize a wide range of cancers, including both solid and hematologic cancers.

Patent No. ZL201880023646.8, published as CN 110494558 B, is owned by A*STAR and exclusively licensed to the Company. The Company holds an exclusive, worldwide license, for use in immunotherapy, including stem cell therapy, until the expiration of the patent covering technology.

The Company received approval in January 2023 from the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) in Singapore to conduct a Phase I clinical trial. The clinical trial, in partnership with the National University Hospital (NUH), Singapore has recruited its first blood donor. The donor blood will be used to manufacture allogeneic CAR-γδ T cells for the study. The cells will be processed in CytoMed's current PIC/S Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility in Malaysia. The Phase I trial is expected to initiate in the second half of 2023.

CytoMed's CAR-γδ T cell technology has been developed as an investigational cancer therapy to target NKG2D ligands, a type of stress-induced cancer antigens. The risk of "on-target-off-cancer" side effects may be reduced by targeting stress-induced antigens that are mainly expressed on cancer cells such as NKG2D ligands.

The Company's other licensed technology from A*STAR is an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based technology to derive a novel synthetic γδ NKT cells for the treatment of various types of cancers. A patent for this proprietary technology has already been granted in Japan, and this asset is under preclinical development.