Biotechnology company MaaT Pharma has announced preclinical results for its drug candidate MaaT034, including promising anti-tumour efficacy results and immune activation. 

MaaT034, a first-in-class co-cultured full ecosystem product, is designed to optimise intestinal microbiome functions and improve patient responses to immunotherapy in combination with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (ICIs).  

The results, presented at the Society for Immunotherapy Cancer Annual Meeting in National Harbor, US, shows that MaaT034 successfully engrafts in the gut of germ-free mice and reproduces the microbial functions of native-based microbiome ecosystems. The candidate also improves dendritic cell (DC)-mediated T cell activation and potentiates anti-tumour effects mediated by anti-PD-1 checkpoint blockade in vitro. 

MaaT034 is part of the MaaT Pharma’s MET-C platform, which leverages AI-driven co-culture technology to create donor-independent synthetic microbiome ecosystems at industrial scale, targeting specific disease indications. 

“With MaaT034, we are entering a new phase in our drug platform development, one that leverages our deep experience in the development of complex microbiome therapies and cutting-edge computational analysis to build a next-generation drug candidate capable of enhancing patient response to immunotherapy,” said Sheri Simmons, Acting Chief Scientific Officer, MaaT Pharma.  

“These findings strongly support advancing our donor-independent, synthetic microbiome therapy and we look forward to bringing MaaT034 into clinical development.” 

MaaT Pharma is also participating in two exploratory, investigator-sponsored clinical trials evaluating its donor-derived drug candidates (MaaT013 and MaaT033) respectively in metastatic melanoma and in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). 

Bruno Quinney, Content Team, DDW