In this episode, host Jim Cornall speaks with Reagan Jarvis, CEO of Anocca, a Swedish biotech company pioneering TCR-T cell therapies. Jarvis shares how, as a researcher, he pitched the concept of a new cell biology-driven platform to a leading Swedish industrialist — who became Anocca’s co-founder and initial funder. The company is now poised to enter the clinic with its first program targeting pancreatic cancer.

Key Points:

Anocca is redefining TCR-T cell therapy by pairing deep cell biology with integrated technology. With the VIDAR-1 pancreatic cancer trial launching in 2025, the company marks a major milestone — and a potential breakthrough — in scalable, precision immunotherapy.

• From concept to company: Anocca originated as an idea on paper by Reagan Jarvis, who envisioned a new way to engineer T-cell therapies. Unlike typical biotech spinouts, it was founded independently with private backing and has grown to a 130-person team from over 40 nationalities.
• VIDAR-1-First clinical trial tackles pancreatic cancer: The VIDAR-1 trial targets pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma using gene-edited TCR-T cells specific to KRAS mutations — addressing one of the deadliest cancers with a 5-year survival rate of just 10%.
• Precision TCR-T therapies through an integrated tech stack: Anocca combines advanced cell biology, custom assays, and enterprise software to map HLA-restricted targets, design TCRs, and scale discovery workflows with high precision.
• Gene editing and automation for scalable production: By using CRISPR-Cas9 editing with Amendo Bio and exploring off-the-shelf T cells via iPSCs with Shinobi, Anocca aims to reduce costs and time to clinic for future products.
• On a mission to industrialize personalised medicine: With its end-to-end platform and focus on scalability, Anocca is building a library of therapies tailored to genetic diversity and tumour types — aiming to make personalised TCR-T therapies commercially viable.