Business
Beam Therapeutics Provides Business and Pipeline Updates and Reports Second Quarter 2021 Financial Results
Company On-track to Submit First IND for BEAM-101 in the Second Half of 2021 Continued Progress Across Base Editing Portfolio, Including Initiation of
About this update from Beam Therapeutics Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Company On-track to Submit First IND for BEAM-101 in the Second Half of 2021 Continued Progress Across Base Editing Portfolio, Including Initiation of IND-Enabling Studies for BEAM-201 CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 10, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Beam Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: BEAM), a biotechnology company developing precision genetic medicines through base editing, today reported recent business and pipeline updates, as well as second quarter 2021 financial results. “We have made meaningful progress in advancing our base editing programs in the first half of the year, and importantly, remain on track to submit our first investigational new drug (IND) for BEAM-101 in the second half of this year,” said John Evans, chief executive officer of Beam. “With the initiation of IND-enabling studies for BEAM-201, we are now bringing the versatility and precision of base editing to a second therapeutic area, targeting the high unmet need in T-cell cancers with the first quad-edited cell therapy. We’ve also continued to expand our innovative collaborator network, most recently through our partnership with Apellis to apply base editing to the more biologically complex disease area of the complement pathway. With a strong balance sheet, we are well positioned to advance our robust pipeline of novel base editing programs through IND filings and into the clinic as we strive to provide potentially life-long cures for patients suffering from serious diseases.” Base Editing Pipeline Progress IND-Enabling Studies for BEAM-201 Initiated: Beam has initiated IND-enabling studies for BEAM-201 for the treatment of relapsed/refractory T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). BEAM-201 is a potent and specific allogeneic CAR-T targeting CD7+ malignancies, which uses multiplex base editing to simultaneously make four knockout edits at over 96% efficiency for each gene. Relapsed/refractory T-ALL is a severe disease affecting children and adults with a five-year overall survival rate of less than 25%.Additional Upcoming Milestones in Ex Vivo and In Vivo Base Editing Pipeline On Track: Beam anticipates filing an IND for BEAM-101, which reproduces single base changes seen in individuals with Hereditary Persistence of Fetal Hemoglobin, or HPFH, to potentially protect them from the effects of mutations causing sickle cell disease (SCD), and initiating IND-enabling s...