On August 28, 2026 Elicera Therapeutics AB (publ) ("Elicera"), a clinical stage cell and gene therapy company developing next-generation therapies based on oncolytic viruses and CAR T-cells armed with bystander immune activating properties using the company’s commercially available platform iTANK, reported that it has received a Notice of Allowance from the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) regarding its patent application for the CAR T-cell candidate ELC-401.
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The patent application protects Elicera’s special antibodies that recognize and bind to the protein IL-13Ra2 (which is often present in large quantities on cancer cells, particularly brain tumors), as well as uses thereof in cancer treatment, such as CAR-T cell therapies.
The patent gives Elicera exclusive rights in U.S. to develop and sell treatments based on these anti-IL-13Ra2 antibodies and related technologies for cancer treatment. This strengthens the company’s protection for ELC-401 (its CAR-T cell candidate against glioblastoma) and other future products based on the same principle.
"Securing patent protection for our anti-IL-13Ra2 antibodies, used in CAR T-cell treatments, is commercially very significant because the United States is the world’s largest and most valuable market for advanced cell and gene therapies. Exclusive protection there strengthens our ability to develop, partner and commercialize ELC-401 and future products based on the same technology", says Elicera’s CEO, Jamal El-Mosleh.
About Glioblastoma and ELC-401
Glioblastoma is the most aggressive primary brain tumor, with a median survival of approximately 15 months despite standard treatments (surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy). ELC-401 is designed to target IL13Ra2-positive tumors while using the iTANK platform to stimulate endogenous immune responses against additional tumor antigens, potentially overcoming heterogeneity and immunosuppression in GBM.
About the iTANK platform
The iTANK technology platform has been developed for arming and enhancing CAR T-cells to meet two of the major challenges CAR T-cell therapies face in the treatment of solid tumors: a very diverse set of tumor antigen targets and a very hostile tumor microenvironment. The technology is used to incorporate a transgene into CAR T-cells encoding a neutrophil activating bacterial protein (NAP). NAP secreted from the CAR(NAP) T-cells has been shown to be able to enhance the function of CAR T-cells and importantly activating a parallel bystander immune response against the cancer via CD8+ killer T-cells. This is expected to lead to a broad attack against most antigen targets on cancer cells. The iTANK platform is used to enhance the company’s own CAR T-cells but can also be universally applied to other CAR T-cell therapies under development. Proof-of-concept data was published in Nature Biomedical Engineering in April 2022. The publication, titled "CAR T cells expressing a bacterial virulence factor triggers potent bystander antitumor responses in solid cancers" (DOI number: 10.1038/s41551-022-00875-5) can be found here: View Source More information about iTANK platform is available here: View Source
(Press release, Elicera Therapeutics, AUG 28, 2026, View Source [SID1234670388])