Early-stage biotech LIfT Biosciences has secured €12m ($13.74m) in funding from Ireland’s Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) to advance its novel IMAN cell therapy platform to clinical trials.
Composed of immunomodulatory anti-tumour neutrophils, the therapy is designed to replace dysfunctional pro-tumour neutrophils, helping to “overcome treatment resistance, improve response and avoid relapse in patients with solid tumours”, explained LIfT’s CEO, Alex Blyth.
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Forged by six immunotherapy pioneers and oncology experts, LIfT claims its IMAN therapy is poised to be “the Keytruda (pembrolizumab) of innate immunity,” with the modality already outcompeting Merck’s blockbuster PD-1 monoclonal antibody (mAb) in a preclinical organ-on-a-chip model.
IMAN cells, which are extracted from a curated group of ‘super donors’ with a demonstrably strong immune system, differ from traditional oncological immunotherapies like CAR-T as they “reconstitute the patient’s immune system, empowering it to kill tumour cells in a non-antigen-specific way,” Blyth said.
“By encouraging a patient’s immune system to actively kill cancer cells, IMAN therapies can help combat tumour escape and subsequent treatment resistance — a primary cause of death for patients with solid tumours,” Blyth added.
Flipping the CGT market on its head
Although cell and gene therapies (CGTs) are relatively new to the world of pharma, they have hit the market with a bang, with the sector raking in $5.88bn in 2023, according to a report by GlobalData.
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“If approved, IMAN-based therapies will tilt the CGT space on its axis,” notes Blyth. “So far, it has been very focused on creating serial killing cells, rather than trying to correct immune competence in the patient”.
“Whether they are used as a monotherapy or in conjunction with drugs like checkpoint inhibitors, bispecifics or CAR-Ts, IMAN cells will allow for the efficient killing of rogue tumour cells by the patient’s own immune system,” Blyth added.
According to Blyth, this will help to mop up any rogue tumour cells that targeted therapies miss, allowing an increased proportion of patients with both early- and late-stage cancers to achieve a complete response (CR) and enter remission.
If approved, LIfT’s cell therapy could significantly disrupt the oncology market, taking a slice of the sector’s sales that Merck’s Keytruda has recently been dominating. According to a report by GlobalData, the checkpoint inhibitor made a staggering $29bn for Merck in 2024, making it one of the top 10 best-selling drugs for the year.
Phase I trials to begin soon
To assess the safety and efficacy of IMAN therapies in patients with both head & neck and cervical cancer, LIfT will initiate two Phase I studies, with the first patients in each trial set to be dosed in 15 months.
The biotech also plans to run trials investigating the therapy in patients with pancreatic and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) further down the line.
According to Blyth, these trials will first test IMAN as a monotherapy in patients who are refractory to checkpoint inhibitors — though LIfT will also sponsor an extension to the trial, “where the efficacy and safety of a larger dose of 10 billion cells will be tested”.
“We will also have lines working in combination with checkpoint inhibitors, potentially bispecific antibodies and potentially CAR-T cells to see how IMANs work in combination with oncology drugs that have already been approved,” stated Blyth.
“LIfT is already engaging with a number of pharma companies interested in providing free drugs to conduct a follow-on combination trial, which we expect positive results from,” Blyth concluded.
Results of these trials will be available in 2027.
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Editor’s note: This article was amended on 8 August, changing ovarian to cervical cancer in paragraph 12, as well as specifying that the follow-on trial would be a combination study in the penultimate paragraph.
