The Gothenburg-based company’s ELC-301 is a fourth-generation CAR T-cell therapy that targets the CD20 antigen. It is armed with Elicera’s iTANK platform, which makes the CAR T-cells secrete a bacterial protein. That protein is designed to trigger a broader, parallel immune response against the cancer.

The study is being run at Uppsala University Hospital and Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge. Its dose-escalation part included twelve patients across three dose cohorts. Most had been extensively pretreated – several with multiple lines of chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation – and three had relapsed after earlier CAR T-cell therapy.

“Completing the dose-escalation part of the CARMA study is a major milestone for Elicera. What stands out isn’t just the high proportion of responding patients, but also the depth and durability of those responses in a population that had run out of viable treatment options,” says Johan Liwing, CEO of Elicera Therapeutics.

No dose-limiting toxicities were seen in any cohort. A complete metabolic response, meaning no active disease, was reached by 67% of patients. In total, 92% had an objective tumor response, and all twelve achieved disease control.

Six of the eight complete responders were still in complete metabolic response at their latest assessment. One has stayed there for at least a year and a half, and another for at least a year. All three patients who had received CAR T-cell therapy before achieved disease control, and one of them reached complete metabolic response.

“Some patients in the study have now maintained their response for well over a year, which is an early but meaningful signal of durability,” says Liwing.

“Every signal of efficacy matters enormously in this setting. The patients enrolled in this trial have no remaining curative treatment options and, given their disease stage, would typically face a very limited life expectancy,” says Gunilla Enblad, professor at Uppsala University, senior consultant in oncology at Uppsala University Hospital, and clinical principal investigator for the CARMA study.

The Swedish Medical Products Agency has approved moving the study into Phase IIa, where six more patients will be treated. Recruitment is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026.