Roseanne Dunn

AI Summary

→ WHAT IT COVERS Dr Rosanne Dunn, CSO and cofounder of HaemaLogiX, details the company's precision immunotherapy pipeline targeting kappa and lambda myeloma antigens (KMA and LMA) in multiple myeloma and amyloidosis, covering Phase 2b trial plans, CAR-T development at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and a planned 2026 IPO. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Target Specificity Advantage:** KMA and LMA appear exclusively on malignant plasma cells, not healthy ones, meaning capamab treatment avoids depleting normal antibody-producing plasma cells. This directly addresses a critical failure mode of existing therapies, where patients die from infections rather than myeloma progression due to compromised immunity from non-selective treatments. - **KMA/LMA vs BCMA Expression:** A 195-patient peer-reviewed study published in Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma and Leukemia found KMA and LMA target density on plasma cells exceeds BCMA expression in relapsed-refractory patients. In light chain amyloidosis — 70% of which is lambda isotype — some plasma cells expressed LMA but showed zero BCMA expression, validating these as alternative targets. - **Early Intervention Potential:** KMA and LMA are detectable from the earliest premalignant MGUS stage and increase in density as disease progresses to smoldering myeloma and active disease. Because capamab demonstrates a clean safety profile without hematological toxicity, clinicians could justify treating high-risk MGUS patients before overt myeloma develops, unlike current toxic standard-of-care drugs. - **Pomalidomide Synergy in Phase 2b:** The upcoming Phase 2b trial pairs a higher capamab dose with pomalidomide and dexamethasone in patients who have failed three drug classes including anti-CD38 antibody. Pomalidomide upregulates KMA surface expression more than Revlimid, creating greater target density and potentially stronger synergistic efficacy than the previously tested Revlimid combination. - **Pipeline Breadth Across Platforms:** HaemaLogiX operates across four modalities simultaneously: capamab monoclonal antibody (Phase 2b), KMA CAR-T cell entering Phase 1 at Peter MacCallum, lambda monoclonal antibodies in preclinical development for myeloma and amyloidosis, and early-stage bispecific and trispecific antibody formats — all anchored to the same proprietary KMA/LMA target biology. → NOTABLE MOMENT During an in vivo myeloma mouse model experiment, the control antibody — not the engineered immunotoxin — unexpectedly outperformed in preventing tumor growth. That serendipitous result became the basis for HaemaLogiX's founding patent and the entire capamab therapeutic program. 💼 SPONSORS None detected 🏷️ Multiple Myeloma, CAR-T Cell Therapy, Precision Immunotherapy, Plasma Cell Disorders, Australian Biotech