(Yicai Global) May 18 -- CARsgen Therapeutics has received the green light from the US drug regulator to start its No. 1 international clinical trial of an experimental treatment to fight pancreatic, stomach, and esophagogastric junction cancers.

The US Food and Drug Administration gave the go-ahead to CARsgen's chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy called anti-Claudin18.2 CAR-T, the Shanghai-based firm said in a statement yesterday. CAR T-cell therapy uses the patient's T cells, a type of immune system cells, by re-engineering them in a lab and then injecting them back to attack tumor cells.

"In recent years, we have cooperated with many Chinese hospitals to carry out clinical research on CLDN18.2 CAR-T cells," said Chairman Li Zonghai. The US license to start a multi-dose escalation study is based on research data from Peking University Cancer Hospital, Li added.

Before this, Shanghai Cancer Research Institute and CARsgen have tested the drug on mice to prove its effects on gastric cancer, publishing the results in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute last April.

Editor: Emmi Laine