How East Ocyon Bio is building an off-the-shelf cancer cell therapy in Gurugram
The Gurugram-based company is developing allogeneic CAR-NK cell therapies made from healthy donor cells, backed by a $4.2 million seed round and a government grant covering both resistant tumours and leishmaniasis.
East Ocyon Bio, a Gurugram-based biotech firm founded in 2022 by Dinesh Kundu, Renu Kundu, and Narinder Mehra, is working on developing off-the-shelf cancer cell therapies in India. The company aims to make curative treatments for cancers, autoimmune disorders, and rare diseases available domestically, rather than being launched years after approval in the US and Europe.
East Ocyon Bio's platform utilizes natural killer (NK) cells, which are part of the immune system's initial response, engineered to carry a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) that targets a specific cancer. The company describes its therapies as allogeneic and off-the-shelf, with the goal of producing them using synthetic biology and non-viral cell engineering.
The recently raised seed funding of about ₹36 crore ($4.2 million) is intended for pre-clinical testing, building a GMP-compliant facility, and reaching Phase I clinical trials. While not yet tested in patients, East Ocyon Bio envisions an Indian platform for CAR-NK therapies, with potential benefits including reduced manufacturing costs and turnaround times compared to CAR-T therapies.
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