Umoja Biopharma, Inc., an immuno-oncology company pioneering off-the-shelf, integrated therapeutics that reprogram immune cells in vivo for patients with solid and hematologic malignancies, and Lupagen, Inc., a gene therapy company developing first-in-class gene delivery technologies for CAR-T, gene editing and immunotherapy products, today announced they have entered into a collaboration to evaluate extracorporeal in vivo delivery as a potential additional route of administration for Umoja’s VivoVec particles using Lupagen’s Side CAR-T™ technology. Lupagen’s patient connected extracorporeal Side CAR-T™ delivery system is expected to enable efficient and highly controlled viral vector targeting of T cells in a convenient bedside procedure without requirements for lymphodepleting chemotherapy. “Today’s cellular therapies are often hampered by lengthy delays to patient treatment with a weeks-to-months wait for cell manufacturing and release. Pairing Lupagen’s technology with Umoja’s in vivo therapeutics offers a compelling solution to one of the greatest challenges to receiving cellular therapies today,” said David Fontana, Ph.D., Chief Business and Strategy Officer at Umoja. “Putting patients first is not just about building better therapies, it’s about reimagining the patient experience by giving more control to the patients and providers to enable timely and controlled delivery.”
