CAR-Ts have already changed the treatment landscape when it comes to blood cancers, but getting a cell therapy to market for solid tumors remains tantalizingly out of reach. Now, Inceptor Bio and cell engineering tech company Avectas are taking on the challenge.
Under the agreement, Inceptor will use Ireland-based Avectas' non-viral technology, instead of the process of electroporation more commonly used to engineer T cells. The Avectas delivery platform, dubbed Solupore, is designed to overcome some of the limitations current delivery modalities face, such as complex editing, by efficiently delivering cargos into cells.
The two companies hope the combination of Solupore delivery with Inceptor's CAR-T platform—which aims to increase engineered T cell quality and improve durability in the tumor microenvironment—will boost performance and efficacy. The financials of the deal were not disclosed.
“This collaboration with Avectas is part of our strategy of advancing Inceptor Bio's next-generation cell therapy platform focused on multiple novel mechanisms to address solid tumors,” Inceptor CEO and founder Shailesh Maingi said in an Oct. 12 release. “The aim for our proprietary CAR-T platform is to transform how solid tumors are treated.”
Maingi, who previously helmed Kineticos Ventures, founded Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based Inceptor in 2020. In May, the biotech raised $37 million in a series A to push its lead CAR-T program into phase 1 trials in 2023 and set up a manufacturing site in Florida. The biotech has more than just CAR-Ts in development, with CAR-M and CAR-NK platforms also in the works.