Circio Holding ASA (”Circio” or ”the Company”) announced, on the 24th of June 2026, a research collaboration with Tcelltech GmbH (”Tcelltech”), a Mannheim-based biotechnology company, to combine circVec with Tcelltech’s non-viral, non-integrating, episomal nanoSMAR DNA vector platform for next-generation engineered T-cell therapies, including in vivo CAR-T and TCR-T. The program runs in stages: an initial proof-of-concept phase comparing how strongly and how durable the technology combination drives gene expression in primary human T cells, followed by a functional phase in which CD19-directed CAR T cells are generated and assessed for their ability to kill tumor cells. No financial terms are disclosed.
About Tcelltech
Tcelltech GmbH, founded by clinicians and scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), has developed the nanoSMAR and selecTCR technology platforms, aimed at overcoming fundamental limitations currently constraining immunotherapies for a broader patient population.The Company is working towards in vivo cell therapies, with the aim to significantly improve immunotherapies for cancer and other diseases.
Analyst Group’s View on the Tcelltech Collaboration
The scientific logic is consistent with Circio’s other in vivo cell therapy engagements. Effective in vivo T-cell therapy depends on two things: delivering the genetic payload into the correct immune cell, and keeping it expressed long enough to achieve a durable effect. nanoSMAR contributes the delivery solution, while circVec contributes durability, having demonstrated expression of more than six months in lymphoid tissue on a single dose in preclinical studies, versus only days for conventional mRNA-based approaches. What sets this engagement apart from Circio’s earlier cell therapy collaborations is the delivery format. Where the Acuitas and United Immunity tracks rely on LNP-based systems and the GenAssist track on AAV capsids, nanoSMAR is a non-viral, non-integrating DNA vector with an exceptionally large cargo capacity. Analyst Group considers this the most material aspect of the announcement: a high-cargo, non-integrating format could enable more complex multi-gene constructs than viral systems permit, while sidestepping both genomic-integration risk and the safety concerns attached to the viral vectors that current in vivo approaches depend on. For the licensing thesis, this matters, as each additional delivery format circVec can plug into widens the universe of potential pharmaceutical partners and further substantiates its delivery-agnostic positioning.
Financially, the engagement arrives with the balance sheet substantially de-risked. Following the NOK 250m placement in April and the NOK 300m secured through the warrant program in June, total H1-26 proceeds amount to approx. NOK 620m (USD 65m), which Analyst Group estimates funds the Company into the end of 2030. With funding no longer a constraint, Circio will pursue technical-feasibility collaborations of this kind as part of a broader business development strategy to demonstrate the broad applicability or use of the technology and thus increase its value and probability for partnerships with Pharma companies.
In summary, Analyst Group views the Tcelltech collaboration as a technically coherent addition to Circio’s in vivo cell therapy portfolio. The non-viral, high-cargo nanoSMAR format addresses the delivery problem, while circVec addresses the expression-durability problem. These are complementary bottlenecks that together could form the basis of a differentiated in vivo CAR-T/TCR-T approach. That said, the program remains at an early preclinical stage with no disclosed financial terms. The cell therapy track also continues to represent a longer-dated optionality layer rather than a near-term value driver. On balance, Analyst Group assesses that the collaboration adds another credible partner to circVec’s delivery network and incrementally supports the platform’s licensing appeal.
