IASO Bio Establishes International Partnership with Instituto Butantan to Develop Innovative Therapy for Hematological Cancer

• The agreement aims to expand access to the therapy in Brazil;
• The Technology is for patients who did not respond to conventional treatments.

SHANGHAI and NANJING, China and PLEASANTON, Calif., April 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- IASO Biotechnology ("IASO Bio"), today announced that it has signed a technology licensing agreement with the Instituto Butantan, a leading Brazilian public institution, for the local development of a CAR-T cell therapy for hematological cancer in Brazil. The technology uses the patient's own immune cells to treat the disease.

Under the agreement, the cells will be developed and manufactured at the Advanced Therapies Center of São Paulo (Nutera-SP), a facility coordinated by Butantan that has specific equipment for cell therapies.

The local development of the therapy by a public institution allows for lower costs, favoring its potential future incorporation into the Unified Health System (SUS). This type of treatment can cost up to US$500,000 (R$2.6 million) per patient. Today in Brazil, this therapy is only available in the private healthcare system.

"This treatment revolutionized the fight against hematological diseases, but access to it remains a challenge. The new partnership allows the Butantan Institute, as a public institution, to expand its portfolio of advanced therapies to meet the needs of Brazilian public health, expanding access to cutting-edge technologies," says the Director of the Butantan Institute, Esper Kallás.

For the coordinator of Nutera-SP, Vanderson Rocha, Full Professor of Hematology at the University of São Paulo's School of Medicine, the local development of CAR-T by a public institution is a milestone for Brazilian science. "In the future, the therapy could expand treatment possibilities for patients who no longer respond to conventional therapies," he says.

"This partnership with Butantan is a pivotal milestone in IASO Bio's global strategy to bring our innovative cell therapies to patients in Latin America," said Jinhua Zhang, Founder, Chairwoman and CEO of IASO Bio. "By combining our proprietary cell therapy technology with Butantan's exceptional development and manufacturing capabilities as a public institution, we have a unique opportunity to significantly reduce costs and make this life-saving treatment accessible to many more patients in Brazil through the public health system."

About IASO Bio

Founded in 2017, IASO Bio is one of the few commercial-stage biopharmaceutical companies in the Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product (ATMP) sector bringing China's breakthrough innovations to the global market. It is specialized in developing cell therapies and biologics for hematological malignancies and autoimmune diseases, with fully integrated platforms and cutting-edge technologies that span the entire product lifecycle – from discovery and development to manufacturing and commercialization.

About the Butantan Institute

The Butantan Institute is the largest producer of vaccines and serums in Latin America and the primary manufacturer of immunobiologicals in Brazil. It is responsible for the vast majority of hyperimmune serums used in the country to treat envenomation from venomous animals, bacterial toxins, and the rabies virus.

The institute also accounts for a significant portion of the national production of vaccine antigens, notably producing 100% of the influenza vaccines used in Brazil's National Influenza Vaccination Campaign.

SOURCE IASO Bio