Eight in Vivo CAR T Biotechs to Follow Closely

The manufacturing bottleneck in conventional CAR-T therapy is a structural failure in patient care. The current standard requires extracting T cells, shipping them to a facility, genetically engineering them, and expanding them over several weeks—a process that costs $400,000 to around $500,000 per treatment. This delay forces patients to undergo chemotherapy to make room for the cells, often while their conditions worsen.

In vivo CAR-T technology removes the middleman. By injecting a delivery vehicle directly into the bloodstream, the therapy finds circulating T cells and delivers genetic instructions to create the CAR inside the patient’s own body. This approach skips the complex manufacturing process, cuts wait times significantly, and makes chemotherapy avoidable.

The shift from ex vivo to in vivo is a move toward scalability. While no in vivo CAR-Ts have been approved yet due to the necessity of mastering target specificity and safety, the industry is moving toward a model where cell therapy functions more like a traditional, injectable drug.

Umoja Biopharma represents the vanguard of this transition. The Seattle-based company, which utilizes technology platforms from Seattle Children’s Research Institute and Purdue University, recently secured a $100 million series C round in January 2025. Their lead candidate, UB-VV111, is part of a broader effort to prove that in vivo delivery can match the efficacy of lab-engineered cells without the logistical burden.

As these companies move through preclinical and clinical stages, the primary metric for success will be the ability to maintain precision in the bloodstream. The winners in this space will be those who can deliver genetic instructions to the correct cells without triggering systemic safety issues.

Watch the progress of Umoja Biopharma’s VivoV platform as a bellwether for the entire sector.