In vivo Car-T heads for the clinic, but it’s not Sana’s

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 oncologyCompanyProjectTarget antigenCells targetedNoteInterius BiotherapeuticsINT2104CD20CD7+ve T & NK cells, lentivirus-delivered mRNAAustralia cleared to start ph1 Jul 2024Umoja BiopharmaUB-VV111CD19Lentiviral VivoVec tech delivers gene payload via CD3Licensed to AbbVie Jan 2024; to enter clinic in 2024UB-VV300/310CD20–UB-VV400/410CD22To enter clinic in 2024Sanofi3 programmesUndisclosedCD8+ T cellsRevealed at Dec 2023 R&D dayTesseraUndisclosedUndisclosedUndisclosedTech poster at ASGCT 2024Capstan TherapeuticsCPTX2309CD19CD8+ T cells, LNP-delivered mRNAClinical trial possible in 2025Orbital TherapeuticsUndisclosedUndisclosedUndisclosed–Sana BiotechnologySG299CD19CD8+ T cells, via fusosomesDiscontinuedSG239BCMASG242CD19CD4+ T cells, via fusosomesSG221BCMANote: this table has been updated to add detail about Capstan's lead project. Source: company filings & OncologyPipeline.