Our team developed a novel bispecific-antibody (BsAb)-based culture platform technology for cancer-specific T cells. By using anti-cancer/anti-CD3 BsAb of special structures to culture human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, cancer-specific BsAb-armed T cells can be generated, cultured and expanded with purity over 90% in 10 days. It is a fast-culturing and low-cost platform to generate high pure cancer-specific T cells without viral gene transfection. Currently, we successfully developed various anti-cancer/anti-CD3 BsAb, which all can be used to rapidly manufacture cancer-specific T cells. In vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrated highly efficient targeting and cytotoxicity of BsAb-armed T cells to human lymphomas and various solid tumors without severe cellular cytokine release and significant toxicity. The patent of the platform technology has been applied in 7 countries and granted in Taiwan in 2019. Now we are seeking international investment for product industrialization.

Clinical CAR-T cell therapy still has many problems (retrovirus technology, purity only 37%, 30-day preparation, costing NT$ 15 million). In armed T-cell therapy, patients＇ white blood cells were co-cultured with unique bispecific antibodies (non-viral genetic technology) to produce cancer-specific T cells (purity>90%) just in 10 days, significantly reducing manufacturing costs and enabling more patients to access the cancer-specific T-cell therapy for saving their lives.

The patent of armed T-cell therapy, not restricted by current CAR-T cell therapy’s patents, can seize the opportunity in the global market of T-cell therapy. The business models of the platform technology are as follows: (1) Jointly development of new anti-cancer/anti-CD3 BsAbs with pharmaceutical companies and sharing patents and licensing fees/royalty; (2) Technology transfer of specific BsAb-armed T cells and their indications to international pharmaceutical companies; (3) Commercialization of BsAb-armed T cell therapeutics and market promotion.