What are t-cell redirecting therapies?

What are T-cell redirecting therapies? Yeah, so that's a great question. So what is a T-cell? So a T-cell is a type of white blood cell. So a T-cell is part of your fighter system. So the cells that fight off infections and the cells that we can redirect to fight cancer whether that be myeloma or another type of disease, for example, lymphoma. So it's exactly what it means. So T-cell redirecting, you redirect these T-cells, so your own white blood cells to essentially fight the cancer. Now T-cell redirecting therapies, this could be things like CAR T-cell therapies that we have available. So currently for multiple myeloma, we have two CAR T-cell products that are approved. One of them is ID-captogene-viclusyl, for short, ID-cell, or Abecma, as known otherwise. The other CAR T that has been commercially approved for multiple myeloma is cilta-captogene-autolucyl. These are a mouthful. The other name is cilta-cell or CAR-victi. In terms of other T-cell redirecting therapies, we can have things like bispecifics. So these are essentially treatments that target different areas on the cancer cell. One of the bispecifics that's currently commercially or FDA approved is Toclystomab, just really recently in the last month or so has gotten FDA approval. And that one is a bit different than CAR T-cells in the sense that we're getting weekly treatment instead of a one-time treatment and they have slightly different safety profiles, but overall very good treatment options for our patients. Since the recording of this video, two additional bispecific antibodies have been FDA approved. On August 9, 2023, the FDA granted accelerated approval to talcumab, and on August 14, 2023, the Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to elrinatumab. So for example, going back to the CAR T, essentially we use the white blood cells or the T-cells and we send it to a laboratory for the different companies like BMS or Janssen, who essentially target or genetically modify these T-cells with an anti-myeloma property so that every time when these are infused back into the body, every time these cells see a myeloma cell, they recognize it, they become activated to essentially recognize it and kill it, and they persist in the body for some time. So every time they see what we call the BCMA target, which is what the CAR T's that are approved now have been trained to recognize, every time they see it, they become activated, they become activated to destroy it. But generally, as I said, it commonly involves modifying it or linking your white blood cell to an anti-myeloma particle, which is this anti-BCMA, which the myeloma cells have.