IAOSO Bio Partners with Instituto Butantan to Expand Access to CAR-T Cell Therapy in Brazil

IASO Biotechnology has signed a technology licensing agreement with the Instituto Butantan, a Brazilian public institution, for the local development of a CAR-T cell therapy for hematological cancer in Brazil. The technology uses the patient’s own immune cells to treat the disease.

Under the agreement, the cells will be developed and manufactured at the Advanced Therapies Center of São Paulo (Nutera-SP), a facility coordinated by Butantan that has specific equipment for cell therapies.

The local development of the therapy by a public institution allows for lower costs, favoring its potential future incorporation into the Unified Health System (SUS). This type of treatment can cost up to $500,000 per patient. Today in Brazil, this therapy is only available in the private healthcare system.

“This treatment revolutionized the fight against hematological diseases, but access to it remains a challenge. The new partnership allows the Butantan Institute, as a public institution, to expand its portfolio of advanced therapies to meet the needs of Brazilian public health, expanding access to cutting-edge technologies,” says the Director of the Butantan Institute, Esper Kallás.

“This partnership with Butantan is a pivotal milestone in IASO Bio’s global strategy to bring our innovative cell therapies to patients in Latin America,” said Jinhua Zhang, Founder, Chairwoman and CEO of IASO Bio. “By combining our proprietary cell therapy technology with Butantan’s exceptional development and manufacturing capabilities as a public institution, we have a unique opportunity to significantly reduce costs and make this life-saving treatment accessible to many more patients in Brazil through the public health system.”