On July 27, 2025 Elpis Biopharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage cell therapy company developing bispecific armored CAR-T therapies for solid tumors, reported the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) (Press release, Elpis Biopharmaceuticals, JUL 27, 2025, View Source [SID1234654557]). The partnership aims to support collaborative cell therapy research and clinical trials for the treatment of a variety of cancers, including colorectal, pancreatic and ovarian cancers. CAR-T cell therapy is a form of immunotherapy that is currently only approved for use to treat blood cancers, such as certain types of lymphomas and multiple myeloma.
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
As part of the agreement, Elpis will contribute clinically validated technologies for cancer treatment, including multi-mechanism armor, bispecific targeting antibodies, cytokine cocktails, and a rapid mRNA display discovery engine, to drive the development of next-generation cell therapies. These technologies are already being investigated in Elpis’ global clinical trials of EPC-002 and EPC-003, with the goal of expanding their translational relevance across multiple tumor types. Plans are also underway for Elpis to establish a laboratory space at NCCS and co-share its equipment to enable more integrated and efficient collaboration.
"This partnership reflects our commitment to rapidly advancing innovative immunotherapies from discovery to clinical development through to regulatory review and, hopefully saving patients’ lives," said Yan Chen, MD, PhD, Founder and CEO of Elpis Biopharmaceuticals. "By combining Elpis’s proprietary technology with NCCS’s clinical expertise, we look forward to accelerating the delivery of these potential groundbreaking new cancer therapies to patients in Singapore and beyond."
NCCS will contribute its expertise in clinical research and access to clinical trial infrastructure to support the evaluation of novel cell therapy candidates.
"The potential of using cell therapies for solid tumors is still being explored, and this collaboration will enable us to evaluate promising new technologies in a clinical context to address current unmet needs and improve patient outcomes," said Professor Lim Soon Thye, CEO of NCCS.
"This is a key collaboration with NCCS’ precision immunotherapy program. With our respective strengths and the shared goal of transforming clinical care through translational science, we look forward to offering clinical trials and developing novel cell therapies to better meet the needs of patients in Singapore and the region," added Professor Daniel Tan, Head, Division of Clinical Trials and Epidemiological Sciences and Senior Consultant, NCCS.
The collaboration will support the development of bispecific armored CAR-T cell therapies for solid tumors, while Elpis’s global leading mRNA display technology will support NCCS in the rapid discovery of human antibodies to novel targets and enable novel modalities to cell therapy and beyond.
"The MOU represents an expansion of Elpis’s living drug strategy and a key step toward enabling broader clinical translation of our cutting-edge cell therapy technologies," said Chee-Yong Lim, Co-Founder, Co-CEO & Chief Strategy Officer, Elpis Biopharmaceuticals. "Together, we are working to make living drugs a reality for patients with cancers that currently lack effective treatment options."