In vivo
CAR-T is having a moment.
In the space of six months, several big pharmas have made acquisitions that put them in the race to find a bigger, better solution to the challenges that have restrained the commercial impact of the first generation of CAR-Ts. Capstan, Interius and EsoBiotec have been snapped up.
But it’s still an early-stage, up-for-grabs competition to seize and hold the lead. And one of the frontrunners remains independent, well-financed, and focused now on clinical development for what it believes can be groundbreaking new therapies.
Seattle-based Umoja Biopharma set out six years ago to stake out its position in the
in vivo
CAR-T field.
Once the original CAR-Ts from Novartis and Kite showed what they could do in hematology, the limits became clearly visible. Extracting T cells from patients, engineering them for a range of targets, and then reinjecting a mass of cells into patients proved highly effective for blood cancers. They were also expensive to make, needed careful monitoring to manage cytokine release syndrome, and complex enough on the logistics side to limit their use.
Meanwhile, off-the-shelf allogeneic remedies have proved extraordinarily difficult to develop.
And so, the third generation is now arriving in the clinic, with big goals and early evidence that they can quite possibly break down those barriers and expand their reach.
“We’re 100% prepared to go it alone,” Umoja’s founder and CEO Andy Scharenberg said.
But the best way to do that is to be a complete package, which includes a manufacturing operation in Boulder, CO, that can scale up to commercialization and swell total employment at the startup to 160 people.
Scharenberg has been around. He played a prominent role working with cell and gene therapies at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. Then he went on to the top scientific post at Cellectis, also founding a biotech called Pregenen, which was snapped up at the entry-level IP phase by bluebird — back when bluebird was still flying high. And let’s not overlook a role as an executive partner at MPM Capital, one of Umoja’s investors, in a group that includes SoftBank.
There’s a pack of biotechs in the hunt for
in vivo
CAR-T success. Many are following a path that Umoja helped blaze, going after the same targets that first-gen CAR-Ts hit so effectively: CD19, CD22, BCMA and so on. They’re eliminating
ex vivo
complications by delivering genetic instructions that directly transform T cells into CAR-T. Umoja has adopted lentiviral delivery. Capstan and others are on the mRNA bandwagon.
The construct of Umoja’s lentiviral approach is aimed at making a safer, less challenging drug that can be delivered easily, while amping up durability and reducing the need for additional treatments.
The goal, Scharenberg said, would be to generate that initial spike in CAR-T expansion, “and then you have the ability to sustain those CAR-T cells over time and ideally have deeper and more durable responses by activating the cytokine receptor and providing a support signal analogous to what lymphodepletion provides.”
Umoja launched a Phase 1 trial in the US and Australia for UB-VV111, its lead CD19-targeted treatment in hematology. The treatment is partnered with AbbVie, which recently jumped onto the mRNA side of
in vivo
with the Capstan buyout. Then there’s a wholly owned program aimed at CD22 in oncology that’s ramped up in China with their partners at IASO, a Shanghai-based company that inked a deal in 2024.
Oncology is the primary focus for now; autoimmune diseases are also coming up in China.
When it comes to clinical development and the regulatory environment, China sprints ahead of the rest of the world. And faster in Umoja’s world means stealing a march on rivals.
“Just from an execution approach,” Umoja CMO Luke Walker said, “we can get a trial started more quickly [in China] with the investigator-initiated pathway that they have. That is very attractive.”
For now, Umoja can point to a variety of potential sources for fresh cash, as needed. That includes newly popular royalty deals, if it comes to that. A buyout is always possible.
But the big goal, Scharenberg said, remains to commercialize the therapies they produce, just as Seagen did in Seattle — before Pfizer swooped in with a buyout.