The Phase 1 cohort had exhausted treatment options with curative potential. After receiving Elicera Therapeutics’ experimental CAR-T therapy ELC-301, eight of the 12 patients with heavily pretreated B-cell lymphoma had no metabolically active disease on scans. Six remained in complete response at their latest assessment.
CARMA enrolled patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphoma who had received at least two prior lines of therapy and had no remaining treatment options with curative potential.
Responses in a heavily treated group
Eleven of the 12 patients had an objective tumor response, a 92% response rate. Eight achieved a complete metabolic response. Two of those patients later progressed. One patient’s complete response lasted at least 18 months; another’s lasted at least 12 months.
On 17 September 2026, Sweden’s Medical Products Agency authorized CARMA to proceed to Phase IIa. The available reporting did not provide the decision number or approval criteria; authorization to continue the trial is not evidence of clinical efficacy in a broader population.
How ELC-301 is designed to work
ELC-301 engineers a patient’s T cells to recognize CD20 on cancer cells. Elicera’s iTANK technology adds a bacterial protein intended to recruit the patient’s own cancer-killing T cells. The aim is to widen the immune attack beyond the CAR-T cells’ original target. Börskollen describes ELC-301, Elicera’s most advanced drug candidate, as a fourth-generation CAR-T therapy that combines CD20 targeting with iTANK. The lymphoma responses do not show whether this approach can overcome the distinct barriers that often limit CAR-T treatment in solid tumors.
No dose-limiting toxicities were reported across the three dose groups. On 9 September, an independent safety committee recommended the highest tested dose for the next stage, as Affärsvärlden reported. The recommendation was based on safety, not evidence that the highest dose is more effective.
Next stage and evidence limits
Founded in 2014 as Virex AB, Elicera grew from research led by Magnus Essand at Uppsala University. The company began with work on cancer-killing viruses and started its first clinical trial in 2016. It adopted the Elicera Therapeutics name in 2020, then listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market in June 2021.
Elicera expects to begin recruiting six additional patients for the Phase 2a expansion in the fourth quarter of 2026. Swedish regulators authorized the expansion in September, and the company is preparing a full analysis of the Phase 1 data. The Phase 1 trial is complete. Company-reported results indicate complete metabolic responses in eight of 12 patients, figures also reported by Nordic Life Science.
The available materials include no independent peer-reviewed report or individual patient data. They also do not give median response duration.
