Vyriad, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing the next generation of targeted genetic therapies, today announced a strategic collaboration with Novartis to discover and develop in vivo chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies.

The collaboration will leverage Vyriad’s active targeting lentiviral vector platform and Novartis expertise and leadership in cell therapy innovation. Novartis and Vyriad will focus on the identification and development of in vivo CAR-T cell therapy candidates to be clinically advanced by Novartis. Vyriad will receive an upfront payment, milestone payments, and tiered royalties on each program.

“Taking an in vivo approach to CAR-T cell therapies has the potential to transform the field,” said Vyriad CEO Stephen J. Russell, M.D. Ph.D. “We believe our targeted delivery platform is poised to enable this vision for the industry and our collaboration with Novartis represents an exciting step forward in advancing the next generation of CAR-T cell treatments.”

“As an industry pioneer in the field, we are committed to addressing unmet medical needs and making the transformative potential of CAR-T cell therapies available to more patients,” said Jennifer Brogdon, Head of Cell & Gene Therapies at Novartis Biomedical Research. “We are excited to collaborate with Vyriad and combine their technology platform with Novartis expertise and capabilities to innovate and advance next-generation CAR-T cell therapies.”

Vyriad’s targeted lentiviral vector platform provides T-cell specificity and activation in vivo, enabling delivery of CAR payloads to T cells in their natural environment. Through its viral vector engineering acumen, Vyriad developed a lentiviral delivery system with the potential to target and transduce resting T cells and reprogram them while still inside the body to become potential treatments for patients.