Super-Charging the Immune System to Fight Cancer

Cartherics Pty. Ltd. (“Cartherics”) and ToolGen, Inc. (“ToolGen”) announced today that they have entered into a commercial licence agreement.


Under the agreement, Cartherics obtains world-wide rights to ToolGen’s intellectual property (IP) relating to the use of CRISPR/Cas9 for genome editing involving the insertion of CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) genes and deletion (knock-out) of specific genes that code for proteins that inhibit immune cell function.


Cartherics intends to apply the ToolGen technology to the development of autologous geneedited CAR-T cells and allogeneic gene-edited CAR-NK cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) targeting the TAG-72 tumour associated antigen.


Cartherics CEO Professor Alan Trounson said: “We are delighted to execute this agreement with ToolGen, one of the pioneering companies in the gene editing space. ToolGen has been an excellent collaborator over the past two years, culminating in this commercial licence agreement. We are committed to utilising ToolGen’s gene editing technologies with our product candidates.”

ToolGen CEO Dr Youngho Kim commented: “This agreement leverages ToolGen’s and Cartherics’ cutting-edge technologies for the development of innovative, cell-based products for the treatment of cancer. We look forward to working together with Cartherics to develop next-generation cell therapies for cancer.”


The terms of the licence agreement include up-front fees, milestone payments and royalties on product sales, but details remain confidential. As part of the payment terms, ToolGen will obtain an equity stake in Cartherics.

Find out more information here.