Laverock Therapeutics (‘Laverock’), a biotechnology company developing disease-responsive advanced therapies through its unique, programmable gene control technology, today announces its in vivo programs spanning CAR-T and genetic medicine. Building on the Company’s progress in ex vivo cell therapies, the addition of in vivo programs to its therapeutic pipeline expands Laverock’s ability to address some of the most significant challenges in oncology and genetic medicine.
Laverock’s platform technology enables programmable, tunable and multiplex gene control for both endogenous targets and for transgenically expressed payloads. The platform has been validated across multiple cell therapy applications, including armored autologous T cells and iPSC-derived macrophages targeting solid tumors. Laverock’s in vivo programs will provide enhanced efficacy, safety, accessibility, and scalability for CAR-T, and allow the company to address indications with high unmet need in genetic medicine.
In vivo CAR-T has huge potential to transform immuno-oncology, however, to date, development has concentrated on hematological cancers. Laverock’s technology is uniquely suited to unlocking this approach for solid tumors, which represent 90% of all cancer cases. The Company’s platform delivers enhanced efficacy and safety, tailored to specific tumor types, and targeting the complex inhibitory factors associated with the tumor micro-environment.
In genetic medicine, Laverock will utilize in vivo gene silencing though direct delivery of gene editing tools. This will facilitate therapy development for a wide range of disease classes, with an initial focus on nervous system disorders and metabolic disease. The Company’s technology is strongly differentiated for these applications, due to the requirement to control multiple targets or pathways simultaneously, and the need for precision and/or context-specific control of gene expression. Laverock’s approach will address many of the limitations seen with conventional gene editing or RNAi technologies.
The Company's expanded focus reflects growing industry interest in therapies that can be delivered directly to patients while maintaining the precision and safety required for complex diseases.
Building on our success in developing ex vivo therapeutics, we are extremely excited to announce the launch of our in vivo programs, and realize the benefits these cutting edge technologies can bring to patients. This area is highly innovative, and our platform can provide a key element to realizing its potential.”
David Venables, CEO, Laverock Therapeutics
Laverock has a number of technology partnerships ongoing in these areas, and welcomes new opportunities for collaboration and/or co-development.