Announcement • Jun 22
Carsgen Therapeutics Holdings Limited Receives Approval for Satri-Cel, the World's First Car T-Cell Therapy Product for Solid Tumors
CARsgen Therapeutics Holdings Limited announced that as informed by the National Medical Products Administration, the New Drug Application of satricabtagene autoleucel (satri-cel), the proprietary autologous humanized Claudin18.2 CAR T-cell therapy product, was approved for the treatment of patients with Claudin18.2-positive, HER2-negative advanced gastric/gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma (G/GEJA) who have failed at least two prior lines of therapy. Satri-cel is the world's first approved CAR T-cell therapy product for the treatment of solid tumors. Gastric cancer is one of the malignancies with the highest disease burden worldwide, ranking fifth in both incidence and mortality globally, with approximately 970,000 new cases and 660,000 deaths annually. More than 70% of new and fatal cases occur in Asia, and Chinese patients account for approximately 47% of the global gastric cancer burden. According to statistics from the National Cancer Center of China, there were approximately 360,000 new cases and 260,000 deaths from gastric cancer in China in 2022, ranking fifth in cancer incidence and third in cancer-related mortality. Despite continuous advances in surgical techniques and comprehensive treatment modalities, gastric cancer is insidious in onset. In China, the proportion of early-stage gastric cancer diagnosis remains below 20%, and the 5-year survival rate for advanced gastric cancer is only about 10%. Gastric cancer is characterized by high incidence, low early diagnosis rate, high heterogeneity, and high mortality. Conventional chemotherapy drugs have reached a plateau, targeted therapy options are limited, and the proportion and magnitude of benefit from immunotherapy still urgently need to be improved. Therefore, patients with unresectable or metastatic gastric cancer still face substantial unmet medical needs, and there is an urgent demand to drive the discovery and exploration of more precision therapies and novel anti-tumor agents. Claudin18.2 is a highly selective marker protein. Its expression in normal healthy tissues is very limited, occurring only in differentiated gastric mucosal epithelial cells, whereas it is highly expressed in gastric cancer and other malignant tumors. Satri-cel is an autologous CAR-T cell product targeting Claudin18.2. It is genetically modified to express a CAR construct consisting of a humanized Claudin18.2-specific single-chain monoclonal antibody fragment (hu8E5-2I), a CD8a hinge region, a CD28 transmembrane region, a CD28 intracellular signaling domain (CD28 ICD), and a CD3? intracellular signaling region. The company independently developed an innovative, patent-protected preconditioning regimen which is to be administered prior to infusion of satri-cel. This regimen features the addition of low-dose nab-paclitaxel to the conventional lymphodepletion regimen comprising cyclophosphamide and fludarabine to enhance the infiltration and anti-tumor efficacy of CAR T cells. The Company has implemented global patent layout around satri-cel, covering the target, indications, dosage, and preconditioning regimens, among others. The clinical efficacy of satri-cel has received authoritative recognition from top international medical journals. The results of its confirmatory randomized controlled study have been published in The Lancet. Clinical data show that among patients with advanced, heavily pretreated G/GEJ cancer who have extremely limited treatment options and a very poor prognosis, satri-cel demonstrated significant efficacy benefit and a good safety profile compared to existing treatments, bringing a new treatment option to patients with advanced gastric cancer. This major breakthrough not only establishes a new standard for CAR-T therapy in solid tumors but also lays a solid scientific foundation for advancing to earlier lines of therapy, exploring combination treatment regimens, and expanding applications to other Claudin18.2-positive solid tumors such as pancreatic cancer and biliary tract cancer. Satri-cel is an autologous CAR T-cell therapy product against the protein Claudin18.2 that is the first-in-class globally. Satri-cel targets the treatment of Claudin18.2-positive solid tumors. It was approved by the NMPA in June, 2026 for the treatment of Claudin18.2-positive, HER2-negative advanced gastric/gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma (G/GEJA) in patients who have failed at least two prior lines of therapy, making it the world's first approved CAR T-cell therapy product for solid tumors. The Company is actively expanding satri-cel application in early-line treatment and perioperative treatment of cancer, including an ongoing Phase I clinical trial for pancreatic cancer adjuvant therapy in China (NCT05911217), an IIT for consolidation treatment following adjuvant therapy in patients with resected G/GEJA (NCT06857786) and an IIT for sequential therapy following first-line treatment for G/GEJA (NCT07179484).
