Cellectis 砍掉仅有的两个临床期同种异体 CAR-T 项目（lasme-cel、eti-cel），全面转向尚处临床前的 in vivo 基因编辑

Cellectis cans allogeneic CAR-Ts to hop aboard in vivo bandwagon
Biotech
Cellectis cans allogeneic CAR-Ts to hop aboard in vivo bandwagon
By
James Waldron
Sep 14, 2026 5:26am
Cellectis
allogeneic cell therapy
CAR-T
in vivo
Cellectis may have kicked off the year promising “huge momentum” in the allogeneic CAR-T space over the course of 2026, but even the French biotech has been unable to resist the dominance of in vivo options.
The Paris-based company had been expecting to read out a pivotal phase 2 trial of lasme-cel, the biotech’s lead candidate for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), by the end of the year. Around the same time, Cellectis was due to produce a full phase 1 dataset for its other allogeneic CAR-T, eti-cel, in non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).
But the biotech
revealed on Monday morning
that both those clinical-stage programs have been scrapped.
“In 2026, despite our continued conviction in the promise of allogeneic CAR T-cell therapies and strong physician interest in lasme-cel and eti-cel, the commercial and clinical landscape for B-ALL and NHL changed materially,” the company explained in a Sept. 14 release.
“Continued and recently accelerated advances in frontline treatment regimens have lowered relapse rates, reducing the number of patients progressing to later lines of therapy,” the company continued. “Concurrently, the rapid emergence of bispecific antibodies and in vivo CAR-T approaches has intensified competition in second and third-line treatment settings.”
“Together, these dynamics have reduced the addressable patient population for lasme-cel and eti-cel, resulting in slower enrollment, a potentially longer and more costly development pathway, and therefore a delayed timeline to potential registration,” Cellectis added. “We believe these trends are likely to continue and further constrain the commercial opportunity for both product candidates.”
It marks a stark turnaround from February, when Cellectis CEO André Choulika, Ph.D.,
insisted to Fierce
that “2026 is our year,” pointing to “huge momentum” in the allogeneic CAR-T space.
But the momentum has been draining out of allogeneic cell therapies for a while, with companies shifting their allegiance to
in vivo CAR-T
, where gene editing is used to generate CAR-T cells within a patient’s body.
One of the most notable signs was when leading cell therapy organization Kite Pharma, a subsidiary of Gilead Sciences,
scrapped a $2.3 billion allogeneic deal
with Shoreline Biosciences last year and instead started pumping money into in vivo,
purchasing
Interius BioTherapeutics for $350 million and
inking a deal
with Pregene Biopharma worth as much as $1.6 billion.
A wider Big Pharma shopping spree in the space has also seen AbbVie
buy
Capstan Therapeutics for $2.1 billion, Bristol Myers Squibb
acquire
Orbital Therapeutics for $1.5 billion,  AstraZeneca
pick up
EsoBiotec for $1 billion, and Eli Lilly scoop up both
Kelonia Therapeutics
and
Orna Therapeutics
.
Cellectis is also switching over to in vivo, channelling its resources to two preclinical candidates: HEAL-101, an in vivo base editing product candidate targeting APOC3 for severe hypertriglyceridemia, and HEAL-201, an in vivo epigenetic editing product candidate targeting PCSK9 for severe hypercholesterolemia.
The plan is to take both candidates into phase 1 studies in China, with preliminary readouts pencilled in for the second half of 2027 and the first half of 2028, respectively.
While the programs span “two distinct approaches” of base editing and epigenetic editing, Cellectis CEO Choulika said HEAL-101 and HEAL-201 are both “designed to provide highly specific genomic or epigenomic modulation with the goal of avoiding double-strand DNA breaks.”
“Gene surgery has the potential to transform the treatment of high-risk metabolic diseases by delivering long-lasting benefits through a single IV injection,” he added in this morning’s release. “Our decision to focus Cellectis on in vivo gene editing reflects the progress we have made with HEAL-101 and HEAL-201 and our assessment of where our gene editing capabilities can be most effectively deployed.”
As part of this strategic shift, Cellectis said it will “realign its organization and resources” to focus on the in vivo programs as well as continuing to support its partnerships
with AstraZeneca
, Allogene, Servier and Iovance. Fierce has asked Cellectis if this restructuring is likely to involve layoffs.
The realignment is intended to stretch the company’s cash runway into the second half of 2028. The biotech ended June with $169 million in the bank.
Cellectis
allogeneic cell therapy
CAR-T
in vivo
Biotech