China-based IASO Biotechnology has completed the acquisition of MediSix Therapeutics, a Singapore-based immune cell engineering company, adding a proprietary T-cell fratricide-prevention platform and a Phase I clinical asset targeting CD7-positive T-cell malignancies to its existing CAR-T portfolio. The deal extends IASO Bio's cell therapy footprint beyond its approved anti-BCMA product into hematologic indications where conventional CAR-T approaches have been technically constrained.
Financial terms were not disclosed. The transaction is structured as a full acquisition, with MediSix operating as an integrated unit within IASO Bio following completion. No geographic restrictions on development rights were disclosed.
MediSix's core asset is the Protein Expression Blocker (PEBL) platform, founded on research by Professor Dario Campana of the National University of Singapore's Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, a pioneer of the 4-1BB co-stimulatory domain used widely in current CAR-T constructs. The PEBL technology blocks surface expression of target proteins — such as CD7 — on engineered T cells via endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi retention, preventing fratricide without gene editing. This enables CAR-T cells to target antigens shared between malignant and healthy T cells, a technical barrier that has limited cell therapy development in T-cell malignancies. The lead programme, IASO107 (formerly PCART7), is an autologous anti-CD7 CAR-T therapy currently in Phase I clinical evaluation at international research hospitals, with early efficacy and safety signals disclosed by the company.