Recently, Kite, a subsidiary of Gilead, announced that it will acquire the biotechnology company Interius BioTherapeutics for US$350 million in cash. This strategic layout marks Gilead's opening up of a new frontier in the field of cell therapy.

Cell therapy, a frontier of innovation in the biopharmaceutical field, is developing at an astonishing pace. While traditional CAR-T therapy has achieved remarkable results in treating hematologic malignancies, it is limited by complex procedures and high costs. Kite's acquisition of Interius is driven by its pioneering work in in vivo CAR-T therapy. Interius's in vivo CAR-T technology innovatively eliminates the tedious in vitro steps of traditional therapies, opening up new avenues for the convenience and accessibility of cell therapy and injecting strong technological vitality into Gilead.

Interius's technology platform, leveraging its modularity, can be efficiently adapted to diverse disease areas, enabling scalable production. INT2104, the lead product in its R&D pipeline, is a lentiviral-based in vivo gene therapy that precisely targets CD7-positive T cells and NK cells. Through ingenious CAR transgene transduction, it generates effector CAR-T and CAR-NK cells that can precisely combat B-cell malignancies. Phase I clinical trials began in October 2024.

This acquisition is not a simple asset integration, but a strategic layout of deep synergy.

Interius's in vivo integration platform seamlessly integrates with Kite's existing cell therapy technology portfolio, enabling Gilead to build a complete next-generation cell therapy platform, from in vitro to in vivo. In vivo CAR-T therapy, the "2.0" of cell therapy, promises a multi-billion dollar market with its simpler, safer, and more accessible characteristics. Gilead seizes this opportunity, strengthening its leadership in cell therapy and pioneering the emerging in vivo CAR-T market, fueling its long-term development momentum.

In recent years, the competition among global pharmaceutical companies in the in vivo cell therapy field has become increasingly fierce. In vivo CAR-T therapy has become a battleground, and many multinational pharmaceutical companies have begun to deploy in the field of in vivo cell therapy.

In March of this year, AstraZeneca announced its acquisition of Belgian biotechnology company EsoBiotec for up to $1 billion. EsoBiotec's core technology is the engineered nanoantibody lentivirus (ENaBL) platform, which accurately delivers genetic instructions to specific immune cells, efficiently reprogramming T lymphocytes into cells with specific functions in vivo to treat diseases such as cancer, such as the ESO-T01 therapy for multiple myeloma.

In June this year, AbbVie acquired Capstan Therapeutics for US$2.1 billion. Capstan's targeted lipid nanoparticle (tLNP) platform technology is designed for in vivo cell engineering and can be precisely delivered to specific cell types through RNA payloads, thereby reprogramming cytotoxic T cells expressing CD8. Its product CPTX2309 has started Phase I clinical trials in June 2025 for the treatment of B cell-mediated autoimmune diseases.

In addition to pharmaceutical giants such as AstraZeneca and AbbVie, Novartis, Astellas, and Sanofi have all entered the in vivo CAR-T project, demonstrating their attention and investment in this emerging treatment technology, injecting strong momentum into the development of in vivo cell therapy, and is expected to bring more treatment options to patients.

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