An FSHR-targeted CAR-T therapy for ovarian cancer.
CAR-T (Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell) reprograms a patient's own T-cells to hunt tumors. Anixa's lead program, lira-cel, brings that approach to a solid tumor — recurrent ovarian cancer — using FSHR (Follicle Stimulating Hormone Receptor) as a target and delivering the cells directly to the disease.
Reprogramming a patient's own cells to attack cancer.
CAR-T is, in effect, the ultimate personalized medicine: a patient's own T-cells are extracted from the patient, genetically engineered in a laboratory to better recognize and kill cancer, and then re-infused into the patient. Against certain blood cancers it has already changed outcomes — FDA-approved therapies targeting the CD-19 protein have produced durable responses in children and adults with leukemias and lymphomas for whom other treatments had failed.
That success has been hard to carry into solid tumors, which to date have shown very little unequivocal CAR-T results in humans — largely because they rarely present a clean, cancer-specific surface target. Lira-cel is Anixa's answer for one of them: an FSHR-targeted CAR-T for recurrent ovarian cancer.
Lira-cel · FSHR-targeted CAR-T
A solid-tumor gap, and a serious unmet need.
The markets for solid tumors are far larger than the liquid cancers where CAR-T first succeeded — and ovarian cancer, where lira-cel begins, is among the most urgent.
- Proven in liquid cancers. CD-19–directed CAR-T is FDA-approved for B-cell leukemias and lymphomas.
- The solid-tumor barrier. No unequivocal CAR-T success has been shown in solid tumors in humans, largely for lack of a clean, cancer-specific surface target.
- A larger opportunity. Solid-tumor markets far exceed those for leukemias and lymphomas — ovarian cancer comes first, with other tumor types to follow.
- Late and lethal. Ovarian cancer, one of the most aggressive reproductive cancers, is usually caught at stage 3 or 4, driving high recurrence and poor prognosis.
A target on the tumor, not on healthy tissue.
Lira-cel is engineered to recognize a single receptor that ovarian tumor cells carry, that no other healthy organ in an adult woman does.
In the clinic. A Phase 1 dose-escalation trial in women with recurrent ovarian cancer (NCT05316129), with positive survival observations reported to date — potentially one of the first effective CAR-T therapies for a solid tumor.
Developed with leading cancer institutions.
A Tampa-based center and one of only 49 National Cancer Institute–designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, ranked a U.S. News & World Report Top 10 cancer hospital every year since 1999.
Founded in 1892 as the nation's first independent biomedical research institute, on the University of Pennsylvania campus; an NCI-designated Cancer Center holding the highest possible “Exceptional” rating.
Follow lira-cel through the clinic.
The pipeline lays out every program by indication, stage, and partner.