On July 22, 2026 Tikva Allocell reported the successful closing of an $8 million Series A financing round, led by Kantharos Capital. The capital will accelerate the development of Tikva’s novel off-the-shelf, engineered allogeneic T-cell platform designed to tackle persistent challenges in solid tumor oncology.
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The funding will primarily support the completion of IND-enabling studies and regulatory filings for Tikva’s lead candidate, TAVST01, as the company prepares to enter clinical development in both Singapore and the United States.
Overcoming the Solid Tumor Barrier
While allogeneic (donor-derived) cell therapies hold immense promise for scalable cancer treatment, host immune rejection often clears (allorejection) these cells before they can deliver sustained therapeutic benefit.
Tikva’s platform solves this challenge through a multi-pronged approach:
EBV-Specific T-Cell Backbone: Built on donor Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-specific T cells—cells the human immune system naturally recognizes and tolerates long-term—minimizing Graft-versus-Host Disease (GvHD) risk without requiring heavy gene editing.
SerpinB9(CAS) "Armor": Engineered with an optimized variant of SerpinB9 (a inhibitor of granzyme B and caspases). This enhancement shields the cells from host cell rejection and activation-induced cell death (AICD), enabling long-term persistence in the tumor microenvironment.
Our lead candidate, TAVST01, targets B7-H3—an antigen widely overexpressed across multiple high-need solid tumors, including including lung, breast, prostate, pancreatic, and pediatric cancers.
(Press release, Tikva Allocell, JUL 22, 2026, View Source [SID1234669369])