ArsenalBio abandons solid tumor cell therapy for in vivo CAR T

USA-based cell therapy developer Arsenal Biosciences, known as ArsenalBio, is walking away from the engineered T cell treatments for solid tumors it has spent six years building, and will instead try to program T cells inside the patient's body. The privately held South San Francisco company said the shift will cost most of its staff their jobs.

The company said its investment in T cell biology, synthetic biology and computation now points toward in vivo approaches, which it believes can reach a wider set of diseases, including blood cancers and autoimmune conditions. A core team stays on to run the new strategy and to seek partners or buyers for the technology and assets being left behind.