IN8bio (NASDAQ:INAB) is developing therapeutics based on gamma delta T cells, a subset of immune cells the company believes can be applied in both oncology and autoimmune disease, CEO and co-founder William Ho said during a webinar hosted with RedChip.
Ho said the company is among the leading developers of gamma delta T-cell approaches, pointing to clinical experience in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and glioblastoma (GBM). He highlighted that some patients in its oncology programs have remained progression-free for more than four years, and he emphasized a focus on improving “precision and safety” versus other cellular therapy approaches.
Scientific rationale and pipeline overview
Ho outlined IN8bio’s pipeline, including:
- INB-400 (DeltEx Allo): donor-derived gamma delta T cells infused into leukemia patients undergoing transplantation. Ho said the company is enrolling and treating patients in an expansion cohort and expects a clinical update toward year-end, likely at the American Society of Hematology meeting in early December.
- INB-200 and INB-400 (GBM): programs in frontline glioblastoma, with INB-200 described as an investigator-initiated trial and INB-400 as a corporate-sponsored IND Phase II program.
- INB-619: a gamma delta T-cell engager platform the company is developing for potential use in autoimmune disease and oncology.
Glioblastoma: trial design and early clinical signals
Ho described GBM as a “devastating brain tumor,” noting about 14,000 newly diagnosed patients per year in the U.S. and another 14,000 in Europe, and said the standard of care has not changed since 2005. He said the company’s approach aims to address residual tumor cells that remain after surgery and standard therapy and can drive recurrence.
Ho said IN8bio genetically engineered gamma delta T cells to survive alongside chemotherapy, which he described as a key challenge because standard therapy can also kill immune cells. He said the chemotherapy regimen can also increase tumor signals that make residual tumor cells more recognizable to the engineered gamma delta T cells.
In outlining the clinical workflow, Ho said patients undergo standard surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. The company adds a catheter at resection to access the tumor site, performs apheresis to collect blood for manufacturing, genetically engineers the cells, cryopreserves the product, and administers doses during the maintenance phase. He described a dose-escalation structure in which cohort 1 received a single dose, cohort 2 received three doses, and cohort 3 received up to six doses.
Ho said the combined Phase I/II GBM dataset includes 17 treated patients across four sites: the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Cleveland Clinic, Moffitt Cancer Center, and The Ohio State University. He also said the company identified 10 contemporaneous control patients from the same centers.
Ho reported no major toxicity events or adverse events in the treatment arms and said outcomes appeared consistent across sites. He noted that baseline characteristics were generally balanced, with the main difference being resection type: Ho said 80% of control patients had total resection versus 43% in the repeat-dose treated group—an imbalance he said would typically favor better outcomes in controls.
Ho reported a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 6.6 months and a median overall survival (OS) of 13.2 months in the control cohort. For patients receiving more than one dose (three to six doses), he said median time to progression was “almost equivalent to the overall survival in the control cohort,” and as of the end of December, median OS was not reached, with OS “currently sitting at 17.2 months.” Ho also said that despite small patient numbers, the company observed separation in Kaplan-Meier curves and reported statistical significance in both progression and overall survival.
Ho said the company expects additional GBM clinical data mid-year and noted that IN8bio has historically presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting.
Gamma delta T-cell engagers: autoimmune opportunity and preclinical data
Ho framed the company’s T-cell engager program as a response to momentum in autoimmune disease following reports of CD19 CAR-T use in autoimmune patients. He cited a 2022 New England Journal of Medicine publication by clinician Georg Schett describing CD19 CAR-T data, and he referenced a more recent Nature Medicine publication describing a patient with multiple autoimmune diseases who was “cured of all three.” However, Ho said CAR-T can cause substantial toxicity, motivating IN8bio to pursue a T-cell engager approach.
Ho said many existing T-cell engagers target CD3, which he argued can broadly activate immune cells and contribute to cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and T-cell exhaustion. He cited CRS rates of “60%–80%” with about “10%” Grade 3 or higher in ICU settings, and he referenced Janux data in prostate cancer showing “96% all grades of CRS” and “8% grade 3.”
IN8bio’s approach targets CD19 and aims to engage gamma delta T cells, which Ho said could reduce cytokine-driven toxicities while enabling broad B-cell depletion and a potential “immune reset.” He presented preclinical assay results showing consistent B-cell killing across three healthy donors and highlighted IL-6 as a CRS biomarker, stating the company observed no IL-6 dose response in testing.
Ho also described head-to-head in vitro assays against Amgen’s blinatumomab and Roche’s mosunetuzumab, saying IN8bio’s engager showed at least equivalent B-cell depletion while producing markedly reduced CRS-associated cytokines. He said IL-6 production at a high dose of IN8bio’s compound was comparable to mosunetuzumab at a much lower concentration, which he described as a “178x difference,” suggesting a wider therapeutic window.
Ho said IN8bio expects to share first animal data later this year, likely in the third or early fourth quarter.
Financing runway and upcoming milestones
Ho said the company raised financing in December, led by Coastlands Capital, beginning with a $20.1 million first tranche. He said mouse data from the T-cell engager program would trigger a second tranche, which he said would extend runway through 2027 into early 2028. In the Q&A, Ho added that the company ended 2025 with “just over $27 million” in cash, which he said supports operations into the first half of 2027.
Ho also announced an R&D day in New York City on May 21, featuring neuro-oncologist Dr. David Reardon, Chief of Neuro-Oncology at Dana-Farber. Ho said the company will provide updates across the pipeline, including clinical data and progress on the T-cell engager.
Asked which program he views as the most important driver of value, Ho pointed to the T-cell engager and referenced recent industry transactions in the space, including Gilead’s acquisition of Ouro for “almost $1.7 billion” and a separate deal with $180 million upfront, as well as Sanofi’s acquisition of a Phase I asset from Dren Bio for $600 million upfront.
Ho said IN8bio is focused on building a gamma delta T-cell platform and suggested that if it creates meaningful value, it could lead to partnerships, deals, or acquisitions in the future.
About IN8bio (NASDAQ:INAB)
IN8bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing γδ T cell therapeutic and γδ T cell engager (TCE) product candidates to address unmet medical needs. γδ T cells are
a specialized population of T cells that possess unique properties, including the ability to differentiate between healthy and diseased tissue. The Company’s lead programs consist of INB-100, an allogeneic γδ T cell candidate for adult patients with high-risk
leukemias undergoing haploidentical stem cell transplantation.
