RephImmune: Innovation Meets Urgency in Women’s Cancer Treatment

While engineered cell therapies like CAR-T have shown life-saving results for blood cancers, they have largely failed to address one of oncology’s most pressing challenges: solid tumors. This limitation is particularly urgent for women’s cancers, such as ovarian and breast cancer, where treatment options are still limited, prognosis is often poor, and innovation is desperately needed.

“Although the industry has made countless improvements on existing cell therapies, these changes are often icing on a melting cake—helpful, but unable to achieve the results patients need,” explains Dr. Ming-Wei Chen, Founder and CEO of RephImmune Biotechnology Inc.

Dr. Chen, a scientist with deep experience in gene therapy and immuno-oncology, witnessed these limitations first-hand while working on the first FDA-approved CAR-T therapy at Novartis. Ashe saw close family members struggle with ovarian cancer, the problem became personal—and it sparked a radical idea.

“I realized that no matter how much we optimized CAR-T, it was still not sufficient for treating solid tumors. This led me to think outside the box and create a brand-new cell therapy,” he says.

This vision led to the creation of RACE—Reconstitute-Immunity Antigen-Cell Engager—RephImmune’s novel immune cell therapy designed to target solid tumors safely and effectively.

Challenging the Status Quo

While CAR-T therapy revolutionized treatment for hematologic cancers, its application to solid tumors remains limited. RephImmune has taken a bold approach: not refining the current model but building an entirely new one.

“Traditional cell therapies were not designed to treat solid tumors and face many limitations,” Dr. Chen notes.“Our next-generation platform is designed to overcome these barriers and address critical unmet medical needs.”

Instead of incrementally improving existing models, RephImmune uses cutting-edge protein engineering to generate novel components that overcome traditional limitations. This therapy takes a patient’s cells and engineers them to recognize and eliminate their tumors. As a result, the first-in-class platform unlocks durable and safer treatment options for solid tumors.

The start-up is currently focusing on cancers that disproportionately affect women’s health—ovarian, breast, and lung cancers—together representing 38% of all global cancer cases.

From Concept to Clinic

Despite being a bootstrapped company with limited resources, RephImmune has already achieved significant milestones and is firmly on the path towards its biggest goal.

“We have successfully de-risked our concept and have applied for IRB approval to start our first clinical trial,” shares Dr. Chen. “With the right support, especially financial backing, we will achieve our mission to create an engineered cell therapy that can effectively treat solid tumors.”

Looking Ahead: The Future of Cell Therapy

RephImmune is part of a wave of innovators looking to expand cell therapy’s reach—beyond cancer, and into areas like autoimmune diseases. The team expects meaningful breakthroughs in the coming years, not only from their work but across the industry.

“In the next five years, cell therapy will likely become a popular option not only for cancer but also for autoimmune diseases,” Dr. Chen predicts. “We plan to deliver in-human results for our therapy within this timeframe. If successful, it will position us as a key influencer in the cell therapy field, especially for solid tumors.”

A Mission-Fueled Culture

What drives RephImmune is not just science—but philosophy. At the heart of the company’s culture is a mindset of disruption and purpose.

“Be disruptive, not decorative. Uncover real pain points and find ways to unlock them. Think far, not just fast,” says Dr. Chen. “If you want to build a career in this industry, do not be afraid to challenge assumptions and design solutions that can truly change patients’ lives.”

How Tech4Eva Supports the Mission

As part of the Tech4Eva accelerator, RephImmune benefits from a network of global peers and healthcare experts dedicated to transforming women’s health.

“Tech4Eva connects us with a global community that shares our urgency to transform women’s health,” says Dr.Chen. “It helps us sharpen our strategy, expand our network, and accelerate our mission to deliver effective cell therapies faster to the patients who need them most.”

➡️ Website: www.rephimmune.com 

➡️ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rephimmune/