King's College London spins out Korecyte Bio Ltd with investment and support from CGT Catapult

King’s College London has spun out Korecyte Bio Ltd and Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult) has enabled the spinout, through transactional expertise and investment, to accelerate the therapeutic development and clinical readiness of its lead candidate in solid cancers.  

The spinout builds on years of academic research within the School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences at King's. Korecyte is developing a novel tumour-activated CAR-T platform called HypoxiCAR. This novel platform only allows T cells to be activated when they encounter low-oxygen environments, typical of solid tumours, whilst keeping them inactive in healthy tissues for their protection. This selective activation aims to reduce toxicity, avoid off-target effects, enhance anti-cancer potency, and unlock novel CAR-T targets. This will offer a safer, more effective CAR-T therapy for patients with hard-to-treat solid cancers, whilst also significantly reducing the cost of these treatments. 

The investment from CGT Catapult comes via the Innovate UK Cross-Catapult Investment Pilot, a scheme that enables organisations in the Catapult Network to make seed investments into high-potential companies. Korecyte will use this funding to further develop the HypoxiCAR platform, which offers potential to be incorporated into a range of CAR constructs and immune cell types. Alongside the financial investment, CGT Catapult will provide expert support to help Korecyte align its development programme with the priorities of pharma partners and biotech-focused investors, supporting its path to commercialisation and scale. 

Dr. Leon Spijkers, CEO of Korecyte, said:

Korecyte has selected a development approach that deviates from common CAR-T programmes by focusing on a unique biological toolkit placed under control of HypoxiCAR. These aim to increase the product’s clinical performance whilst significantly reducing manufacturing cost in order to make the treatments more widely accessible. The continuous support of King’s, alongside this new investment from the CGT Catapult, is a crucial advantage for Korecyte as it will support further development as well as reinforce the company’s strong links with King’s and its vibrant innovation and research environment.

Professor Sebastien Ourselin FREng FMedSci, Assistant Principal (Innovation), said:

We are delighted to see Korecyte Bio spin out from King’s College London. Advancing the HypoxiCAR platform towards the clinic brings us closer to improving outcomes for patients with solid tumours and demonstrates the real‑world impact of King’s research.

Matthew Durdy, Chief Executive of the CGT Catapult, said:

CAR-T therapies have transformed outcomes for some blood cancers, but solid tumours- which affect the majority of cancer patients- have remained largely beyond their reach. HypoxiCAR takes a genuinely novel approach to addressing that challenge, and we believe it has potential to change the treatment landscape. Accelerating the translation of promising research from world-leading institutions like King's into high-potential companies is exactly the kind of work we are here to do: helping translate outstanding academic research into a scalable business that can deliver transformative medicines to patients who currently have very limited options.