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In vivo Car-T heads for the clinic, but it’s not Sana’s
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It might come as a surprise that what looks like the world’s first in vivo generated Car-T therapy to enter clinical trials will come not from the once heavily backed Sana Biotechnology, but from Interius BioTherapeutics, a little-known private Australian biotech. It was the preclinical-stage Sana whose 2021 IPO raised $676m, at a $6bn valuation, on the promise of targeted delivery of genetic material to generate and express a Car construct in vivo in a patient’s T cells. But that work was shelved last year as Sana switched to a more traditional Car-T approach. Now Interius has revealed that Australia has cleared that start of a phase 1 trial of its lead in vivo Car-T, INT2104, which uses a broadly similar approach. In vivo Car-T has made recent progress, albeit somewhat quietly: Umoja Biopharma hopes to be next into the clinic, with a technology over which it struck a deal with AbbVie in January, and Sanofi claimed to have three preclinical projects at December’s R&D day. Also active here are Orbital Therapeutics ($270m series A round closed in April 2023), Capstan Therapeutics ($175m series B in March 2024) and Tessera Therapeutics, but little is known about their work.
Selected companies working on in vivo generated Car-T for oncology
Company | Project | Target antigen | Cells targeted | Note |
---|---|---|---|---|
Interius Biotherapeutics | INT2104 | CD20 | CD7+ve T & NK cells, lentivirus-delivered mRNA | Australia cleared to start ph1 Jul 2024 |
Umoja Biopharma | UB-VV111 | CD19 | Lentiviral VivoVec tech delivers gene payload via CD3 | Licensed to AbbVie Jan 2024; to enter clinic in 2024 |
UB-VV300/310 | CD20 | – | ||
UB-VV400/410 | CD22 | To enter clinic in 2024 | ||
Sanofi | 3 programmes | Undisclosed | CD8+ T cells | Revealed at Dec 2023 R&D day |
Tessera | Undisclosed | Undisclosed | Undisclosed | Tech poster at ASGCT 2024 |
Capstan Therapeutics | CPTX2309 | CD19 | CD8+ T cells, LNP-delivered mRNA | Clinical trial possible in 2025 |
Orbital Therapeutics | Undisclosed | Undisclosed | Undisclosed | – |
Sana Biotechnology | SG299 | CD19 | CD8+ T cells, via fusosomes | Discontinued |
SG239 | BCMA | |||
SG242 | CD19 | CD4+ T cells, via fusosomes | ||
SG221 | BCMA |
Note: this table has been updated to add detail about Capstan's lead project. Source: company filings & OncologyPipeline.
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