Liminatus Pharma has engaged Korean contract research organisation Synex Consulting to provide clinical research services for the Phase I/IIa study of IBC101, its investigational chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy.
The engagement follows authorisation from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of the Republic of Korea (MFDS) for the trial in patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
Seoul St Mary’s Hospital has been named as the lead site for the study.
The partnership with Synex is structured around a milestone-based programme, with payments tied to progress, including patient enrolment, database lock, and completion of the final clinical study report.
Liminatus Pharma CEO Chris Kim said: “Engaging Synex is another important step in moving IBC101 from regulatory authorisation toward clinical execution. Synex brings extensive experience supporting pharmaceutical clinical development in Korea, and we believe its local regulatory and clinical capabilities will be valuable as we advance the IBC101 Phase I/IIa programme.
“Following the expansion of our oncology portfolio, our focus is increasingly shifting toward execution across our development programmes. The Synex engagement provides clinical infrastructure in Korea to support the next stage of IBC101’s development, and we look forward to progressing the programme toward patient enrolment.”
IBC101 has been designed as a bivalent CAR-T therapy which targets two B-cell antigens, cluster of differentiation 19 (CD19) and CD22.
This approach seeks to expand antigen coverage compared to single-antigen CAR-T therapies and to address tumour heterogeneity and antigen escape, phenomena linked to relapse after treatment with single-target therapies.
The OR-gate configuration of IBC101 is intended to enable recognition of malignant B cells expressing either antigen.
Liminatus Pharma’s current oncology portfolio also includes IBA101, an anti-CD47 monoclonal antibody candidate.
The company noted that the addition of IBC101 to clinical development broadens its efforts in targeting haematological malignancies.
