HCW Biologics Inc. (NASDAQ: HCWB) announced it exercised its option to regain full ex vivo rights to HCW9206 and HCW9201, two commercial-ready compounds as reagents, from licensee Wugen Inc. The company acquired these rights at no cost and retained a nonrefundable upfront license fee, including 2.2 million shares of Wugen common stock.

The compounds target the CAR-T immunotherapy market. Recent data published in Science Advances indicate that HCW9206, a multi-cytokine fusion protein reagent, may offer an approach to producing CAR-T cells with enhanced function for immunotherapy applications.

According to the press release, HCW9206 generates a CAR-T population enriched for T-memory stem cells, which are characterized as highly proliferative and self-renewing. A third-party clinical trial in blood cancer patients demonstrated that CAR-T products enriched with these cells persist longer and achieve complete remissions at low doses without chemotherapy pre-conditioning.

"We are excited to regain the full commercial rights for ex vivo use of HCW9206 and HCW9201," said Dr. Hing C. Wong, the company's founder and CEO. "We have a great opportunity to develop Tscm-based CAR-T approaches to benefit patients with blood cancer, solid tumors or autoimmune diseases, through partnerships with larger companies who are focused on CAR-T therapies."

HCW9206 delivers signals from three immune-stimulating cytokines and has demonstrated activity in generating memory-like NK cells for cancer cell therapy at GMP manufacturing scale, according to published research.

The company plans to commercialize the reagents through corporate partners focused on CAR-T and NK-cell therapies, including developers and manufacturers. HCW Biologics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing fusion immunotherapeutics for autoimmune diseases, cancer, and senescence-associated dysplasia.