CNBX to Enter the Cancer Immunotherapy Market After Acquiring a Controlling Interest in TaGeza Biopharma

 CNBX Pharmaceuticals Inc., a global leader in the development of cancer related medicine, announced today that it has acquired a controlling interest in TaGeza Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. The TaGeza research team remains committed to the company, and co-founder Prof. Benjamin Dekel (MD, PhD) will continue to serve as the company’s Chief Scientist; CNBX Chairman, Gabriel Yariv, to assume the position of TaGeza Biopharmaceuticals CEO.

TaGeza was founded in 2014 by a medical team from Sheba Medical Center, Israel’s largest hospital, led by Prof. Benjamin Dekel (MD, PhD), and under a research collaboration agreement with the Sheba Medical Center.

TaGeza is a developer of next generation immunotherapy and cancer-targeted therapies. The company is currently developing novel Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs) based on novel monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), targeting specific types of cancer by way of targeting the subpopulation of highly tumorigenic cancerous cells, known as Cancer Stem Cells (CSC) or Tumor Initiating Cells (TICs). Patients undergoing more conventional therapies such as chemotherapy enjoy a reduction in tumor size but can often relapse and even develop a more aggressive disease, in part due to the residual population of chemotherapy-resistant tumor cells are enriched by CSCs or TICs. Therefore, targeting CSCs/TICs can help improve patient outcome and reduce relapse caused by their aggressive self-renewal and tumorigenic properties as well as their resistance to more conventional therapies.

The usage ADC therapies is already well established, and growing, as they become increasingly noticeable in the oncological therapeutical global market with 11 Antibody Drug Conjugate therapies already cleared for marketing globally, and with 6 of which that have been cleared for marketing during the last 3 years alone. The main usage of ADCs today is in hematology and in solid tumor therapy. A Market analysis by Nature from August 2021, shows several of the available ADCs as having annual sales of over $1B, and a forecast that the combined annual sales of the currently marketed ADCs will surpass $16B by 2026.

Prof. Dekel (MD, PhD) is the Head of the Israeli Stem Cell Society, and heads the Pediatric Nephrology Division and the Pediatric Stem Cell Research Institute at the Sheba Medical Center. He is also Associate Dean for Clinical Research Innovation and Development and Director of the Center of Regenerative Medicine, at Tel Aviv University.