Biotech company Lion TCR Pte Ltd said Sunday that it plans to commence its Phase I/II multicentre clinical study of its product candidate (LioCyx) for treatment of relapsed liver cancer post-liver transplantation upon approval by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) based in Singapore.

LioCyx is reportedly the first engineered TCR-T cell therapy for treatment of liver cancer in Singapore, added the Singapore-based company.

The company's first trial in Singapore will use the precision T cell receptor (TCR) immune cell therapy to target Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related liver cancer, which forms at least 80% of liver cancers in Asia. 80% of the 800,000 new liver cancer cases in the world yearly are diagnosed in Asia Pacific, including China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and Singapore. Liver cancer is the world's third most deadly cancer with very limited treatment options and poor treatment outcome.

According to the company, its engineered T cell technologies are exclusively licensed from Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore (TCR-T cell therapy developed by Prof. Antonio Bertoletti's lab) and from Technical University of Munich (CAR-T cell therapy developed by Prof. Urlike Protzer's lab). Several Investigator-sponsored trials of LioCyx in Singapore and China have showed results of good safety profile and encouraging signs of efficacy.

Under the company's Phase I/II clinical trial, the patients recruitment will begin in National University Hospital (NUH), Singapore. It plans to introduce more medical centres in Singapore and China for the trial.