Circio Holding ASA and NeoRegen Biotech have signed a second Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) to advance their ongoing collaboration for the delivery of circular RNA (circRNA) expression-based therapeutics. The collaboration now is progressing to the in vivo preclinical stage.

This milestone follows the successful proof-of-concept (POC) results from in vitro studies conducted under their initial MTA, signed in 2023. The collaboration was formed to provide solutions to the critical challenges in the delivery of nucleic acid medicines.

Circio is a leader in circular RNA-based expression systems for next generation gene and cell therapy. Its circVec expression platform has demonstrated the potential to significantly enhance the durability and expression level of both viral and non-viral therapeutics. NeoRegen Biotech, known for its next-generation intracellular delivery solutions, contributes its NICT platform, which has shown superior performance in cellular penetration and endosomal escape compared to conventional delivery systems.

The in vivo studies aim to further validate the therapeutic potential of circRNA expression vectors through the integration of Circio’s proprietary circVec platform with NeoRegen’s NICT (Neoregen Intra-Cellular delivery Technology). Together, the two companies are addressing one of the most critical challenges in nucleic acid drug development: achieving safe, efficient, targeted and durable intracellular delivery.

“The successful transition into in vivo studies marks a pivotal step in our co-development of circular RNA vector therapeutics,” said Dr. Jeongmin Seo, CEO of NeoRegen Biotech. “Combining NeoRegen’s NICT platform with Circio’s circVec technology has the potential to overcome key nucleic acid delivery barriers to fully realize the promise of gene and cell therapies.”

“It is a very important milestone in the partnership that NeoRegen Biotech has decided to progress to in vivo testing of their unique NICT platform with circVec DNA vectors,” said Dr. Thomas Hansen, CTO of Circio. “The NICT delivery technology has shown strong promise to enable efficient delivery of DNA-format therapeutics to specific tissues. The planned in vivo studies will generate essential data to identify target disease indications and progress circVec-NICT candidates towards future clinical studies.”

As the program progresses through the preclinical phase and establishes in vivo proof-of-concept, Circio and NeoRegen plan to select specific targets for development and accelerate their joint R&D efforts toward clinical readiness.