Closely held EsoBiotec is transforming cell therapy by engineering immune cells directly within a patient’s body, enabling the immune system to attack disease—potentially delivering cell therapy to patients in minutes rather than weeks.
“Our mission is to make treatments for cancer and autoimmune disease readily accessible, effective, and affordable to patients worldwide through our groundbreaking proprietary vector platform, which is redefining adoptive cell therapy,” Jean-Pierre Latere, Ph.D., founder and CEO of EsoBiotec says in an interview with BioTuesdays.
Building on the work of world-renowned lentiviral vector expert, professor Luigi Naldini, EsoBiotec’s Engineered NanoBody Lentiviral (ENaBL) platform uses highly targeted lentiviruses to deliver genetic instructions to specific immune cells—such as T cells—programming them to recognize and eliminate tumor cells in cancer or autoreactive cells in autoimmune disorders.
The off-the-shelf, in vivo approach allows cell therapies to be administered via a simple IV injection, without the need for immune cell depletion, reducing costs and simplifying logistics. “We’ve filed patents around this technology and have scaled it to manufacturing in a highly reproducible and high-quality manner,” Dr. Latere contends. “The platform has a modular design and can be easily and rapidly customized—that’s the beauty of ENaBL. We can take anyone’s CAR-T—AstraZeneca’s, for example—use the transgene without modifying the construct, and produce an in vivo CAR that can reach the clinic within 12 months.”
In March 2025, EsoBiotec entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by AstraZeneca (LSE, STO, NASDAQ: AZN) and will become a wholly owned subsidiary, with operations in Belgium.
Dr. Latere explains that autologous ex vivo cell therapies require the removal of a patient’s cells, genetic modification in a manufacturing facility, and subsequent reinfusion following immune cell depletion. This process often spans several weeks, during which the patient’s cancer may progress.
In contrast, EsoBiotec’s in vivo approach has the potential to overcome many limitations of traditional cell therapies, simplify logistics, reducing manufacturing timelines, and expanding patient access. “By engineering immune cells directly within the body, the patient becomes their own factory. It dramatically accelerates the process and is significantly more cost-effective,” he asserts.
Dr. Latere points out that T cells can be reprogrammed using either viral or non-viral vectors—such as lipid nanoparticles (mRNA). “We chose to focus on the viral vector approach because we believe it offers several advantages, including a one-and-done, often same-day solution—without pre-conditioning of the patient. From the perspectives of patients, hospitals, supply chains, and cost, this method is preferable.”
“Due to the transient nature of mRNA, patients would require repeat infusions over several weeks, making lipid nanoparticles more challenging in oncology. So, we made an early and firm decision to pursue the viral vector route,” he adds.
In January 2025, the company announced the November 2024 dosing of its first patient in collaboration with Shenzhen Pregene Biopharma. The investigator-led trial of its in vivo BCMA CAR-T candidate, ESO-T01, for multiple myeloma is being conducted in China. ESO-T01 is the first in vivo BCMA CAR-T therapy to be dosed in a human clinical trial. The ongoing study is designed to assess the safety, tolerability, and preliminary clinical activity—including in vivo reprogramming efficiency—of a single intravenous infusion across escalating doses in up to 24 patients with multiple myeloma.
ESO-T01 is a replication-deficient self-inactivating lentiviral vector that expresses a BCMA-targeted CAR construct under a T cell-specific synthetic promoter. This third-generation, single-dose, off-the-shelf treatment is directly administered without the need for chemotherapy.
According to EsoBiotec, early results indicate that ESO-T01 has a favorable safety profile and promising efficacy at the initial dose with pharmacokinetic characteristics comparable to autologous ex vivo CAR-T therapies. “ESO-T01 has the potential to significantly simplify the patient journey, offering advantages over current treatments for multiple myeloma, which are often costly and come with unfavorable side effects,” Dr. Latere says.
“In our first patient, minimal residual disease in the bone marrow was undetectable, and elevated free light chains—produced by tumor cells—had normalized by day 28, with no significant adverse events. This is extremely encouraging,” he adds.
EsoBiotec anticipates reporting clinical data in the second half of 2025.
Dr. Latere also notes that ESO-T01 can be applied to autoimmune diseases without modification, as it is the same product.
Looking ahead Dr. Latere says that while the company’s current focus is on reprogramming T cells, the next frontier is solid tumors. “We believe our reprogramming approach can be extended to other cells types, including monocytes, which play a critical role in solid tumors.”
“We need to crack the code for solid tumors, which represent 90 percent of cancer cases. Doing so would dramatically lower costs and save lives,” he emphasizes.
The company is currently advancing three programs in solid tumors and expects to bring one candidate, ESO-TX101, into clinical trial in 2026.
In conclusion, Dr. Latere says, “In short—in vivo works. With the ENaBL platform, we’ve addressed key challenges in cell therapy—supply chain, logistics, cost, and patient access, and more. From a company standpoint, we’re confident saying that this platform can turn products around very quickly–just twelve months from sequence lock to trial. Our one-and-done approach is superior to multiple infusions for both patients and healthcare providers.”
Reflecting on the company’s acquisition by AstraZeneca, Dr. Latere says, “For a 13-person company that raised only $22 million, this is a tremendous opportunity—for us and for patients. It’s a testament to the quality of our science and the promise of the in vivo approach.”
“I truly believe that in the next 10 to 15 years, cancer treatment will look very different—and cell therapy will be at the heart of it. As part of AstraZeneca, we will have the opportunity to re-write the way cancer is treated in the future – and that makes us incredibly happy,” he added.
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