Singapore’s Tikva Allocell raises $8 M Series A funding from Kantharos Capital
The biotechnology business Tikva Allocell Pte. Ltd. (Tikva), situated in Singapore, said on Wednesday that it has closed a $8 million Series A funding led by Kantharos Capital.
According to a statement from Tikva, the proceeds will support IND-enabling initiatives and a targeted year-end 2026 Investigational New Drug (IND) submission for TAVST01, the company’s top candidate for B7-H3-positive solid tumors.
The company intends to start Phase 1 clinical research in patients with advanced B7-H3-positive cancer at locations in Singapore and the US, subject to regulatory permission.
TAVST01 targets the protein B7-H3, which is expressed in a variety of solid tumors that are challenging to treat, such as lung, breast, prostate, pancreatic, and pediatric malignancies.
TAVST01 is made from Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-specific T cells, which are immune cells the body naturally produces. It is designed to withstand this rejection, in contrast to traditional donor-derived cell therapies, which a patient’s immune system frequently clears before they can function. It has preclinical potential to both directly kill tumor cells and alter the immunosuppressive microenvironment that has limited cell therapies in solid tumors.
The body maintains a standing population of these virus-specific T cells on patrol for years since nearly everyone has EBV from a previous infection that the immune system never fully clears. This longevity is precisely what donor-derived cell treatments have had difficulty achieving.
“Cell therapy has transformed the treatment of blood cancers but has repeatedly stalled at the solid-tumor door – the donor cells either fail to persist or are eliminated by the patient’s immune system before they can act,
“We started from a different place: a virus-fighting T cell the body naturally sustains, armed to seek out B7-H3 and engineered to withstand the rejection that defeats most donor-derived approaches, with minimal gene editing,” said Ivan Horak, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tikva Allocell.
He said that with this funding, the company is well-positioned to finish IND-enabling research and move TAVST01 closer to its intended IND submission, taking us one step closer to providing patients with solid tumors with a scalable, easily accessible, and possibly revolutionary cell therapy.
The ALLO SerpinB9 EBVST platform, an allogeneic, virus-specific T-cell technology licensed exclusively from Baylor College of Medicine, is the foundation for Tikva’s treatments. Tikva’s unique protein-engineering techniques further improve this technology.
These cells have an enhanced version of SerpinB9, a natural inhibitor of granzyme B, the enzyme that immune cells use to destroy their targets, as well as a B7-H3-targeting receptor. The SerpinB9 “armor” allows Tikva’s cells to withstand rejection and continue to function because a patient’s immune system would typically utilize granzyme B to kill donor cells.
Simultaneously, the method reduces graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) with minimum gene editing.
“Our investment reflects strong conviction in both Tikva’s science and its leadership team. Tikva is addressing fundamental challenges that have constrained allogeneic cell therapies, and we believe its ALLO SerpinB9 EBVST platform can extend the reach of cell therapy to solid-tumor patients who today have limited options,
“We look forward to supporting the company toward IND submission and clinical evaluation,” said Terence Tan, Managing Partner at Kantharos Capital.
