Gilead Sciences has become the latest pharma to strengthen its in vivo cell therapy credentials this year, paying $350 million for CAR-T developer Interius BioTherapeutics.
Integrating Interius into Gilead’s cell therapy-focused Kite subsidiary will give the pharma an in vivo platform designed to generate CAR T cells inside a patient’s body. The idea is to “offer a more durable and long-lasting therapeutic effect by inserting DNA into the patient’s genome,” Kite explained in an Aug. 21 release.
Both of Gilead’s approved CAR-Ts—Yescarta and Tecartus—are traditional ex vivo therapies, meaning they require cell harvesting, engineering and reinfusion. In contrast, Interius’ “innovative, off-the-shelf yet personalized approach is designed to be delivered via a single intravenous infusion, eliminating the need for preconditioning chemotherapy and complex cell processing,” Kite said.
Manufacturing and scalability challenges, plus the need for patients to receive lymphodepleting chemotherapy, have been seen as limiting the widespread use of traditional CAR T-cell therapies. In theory, in vivo CAR-Ts could allow more people to receive powerful therapies.
It’s for this reason that pharmas have increasingly been attracted to the potential of in vivo options. So far this year, AbbVie paid $2.1 billion for in vivo CAR-T player Capstan Therapeutics, while AstraZeneca handed over $425 million upfront for EsoBiotec.
Kite has also shown an interest in in vivo therapies, including by striking a collaboration with Epic Bio in 2023 centered around CAR T-cell therapies directed to blood cancers.
Since then, Interius has become a well-known name among in vivo CAR-T biotechs, having taken its in vivo CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapy, dubbed INT2104, into a phase 1 trial for B-cell malignancies in October 2024.
“In vivo therapy is a promising frontier with the potential to transform how we approach treating patients, shifting to more accessible and scalable solutions,” Cindy Perettie, executive vice president of Kite, said in this morning’s release.
“By combining Interius’ teams and their novel platform with Kite’s deep expertise and footprint in cell therapy research, development and manufacturing, we aim to advance best-in-class in vivo therapies to bring them to patients more efficiently,” Perettie added.
As part of the acquisition, Interius’ employees and operations will be integrated into Kite’s R&D structure, including the creation of a “center of excellence” in Interius’ home city of Philadelphia in order to “accelerate the development of next-generation in vivo therapies.”
“This marks a pivotal step for Interius and the future of in vivo therapy, which has the potential to reduce treatment timelines, broaden access to care and improve outcomes for patients with aggressive or advanced disease,” Interius CEO Phil Johnson, M.D., said in the release.
“With the addition of Kite’s deep expertise and global infrastructure, we’re well-positioned to move quickly into multiple therapeutic areas, expand access to cell therapies and deliver meaningful innovation to patients,” Johnson added.