On August 28, 2026 CREATE Medicines, Inc. ("CREATE"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering in vivo immune programming, reported a strategic research and development collaboration and license agreement with WestGene Biopharma, a Chengdu, China-based biotechnology company developing targeted lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery technology and next-generation mRNA therapeutics.

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The collaboration expands CREATE’s access to cutting edge targeted LNP technologies, combining CREATE’s leading in vivo CAR platform with WestGene’s proprietary tLNP delivery platform. It will evaluate their synergistic potential across three product candidates, providing research, development, and early clinical evaluation of initial programs, and further development activities to advance candidate products.

"Pioneering a new therapeutic class requires us to be fast, smart, and global," said Daniel Getts, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of CREATE Medicines. "We are excited to collaborate with WestGene and gain new exposure to its exceptional targeted-LNP expertise and technology. WestGene brings a highly productive translational organization and the ability to advance innovative programs rapidly through clinical studies, which will support CREATE’s efforts to develop the deepest pipeline and most informative human dataset in in vivo cell therapy. By combining these capabilities, we can accelerate the speed of clinical breakthroughs as we continue building the most integrated in vivo immune programming company in the world."

The collaboration will initially advance three programs spanning autoimmune disease, solid tumors, and durable gene delivery:

CRT-403, a dual-target CD19 × BCMA in vivo CAR-T therapy for autoimmune disease that targets both B cells and antibody-producing plasma cells.
CRT-401, a dual-component HER2 × TROP2 multi-immune in vivo CAR program for solid tumors.
A CD19 × BCMA RetroT-enabled in vivo CAR program, combining CREATE’s proprietary site-specific RNA gene integration platform with WestGene’s targeted delivery technology to evaluate durable CAR expression following a single administration.
"We are pleased to collaborate with CREATE Medicines to explore the potential of targeted LNP delivery in next-generation in vivo CAR therapies," said Xiangrong Song, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of WestGene. "CREATE brings a broad clinical and technology platform spanning multiple immune-cell populations and RNA expression strategies, while WestGene brings targeted delivery technology and extensive experience in translating mRNA innovation in the clinic. Together, we aim to move differentiated programs into patients efficiently and generate data with global relevance."

The collaboration, which may be expanded by mutual agreement, builds on CREATE’s existing autoimmune pipeline, led by CRT-402, its CD19-directed, transient and repeat-dose in vivo CAR-T program, currently in a first-in-human Phase 1/2 clinical study (NCT07778446). CRT-402 establishes the foundation of CREATE’s CD19 development strategy, which the company is expanding through dual-target CD19 × BCMA immune programming with CRT-403 and potentially durable CAR expression through its RetroT platform.

CREATE’s growing global footprint now includes three targeted-delivery partnerships across three continents: WestGene in China, a research collaboration with Monash University in Australia, and a strategic collaboration with Acuitas Therapeutics in Canada. Partnerships are built on CREATE’s clinical dataset, which is the largest in the in vivo CAR field, with more than 60 patients dosed across its in vivo CAR clinical programs. Data generated across its candidates inform each of its subsequent programs, leveraging insights across targets, immune-cell populations, delivery systems, CAR architectures, expression profiles, dosing strategies, and disease settings.

(Press release, Create Medicines, AUG 28, 2026, View Source [SID1234670419])