Etcembly announces world's first immunotherapy drug designed by generative AI

Oxford, UK-based techbio innovator Etcembly is coming out of stealth mode, kickstarting the next generation of immunotherapies with a pipeline of best-in-class T cell receptor (TCR) therapeutics designed using generative AI.

The company’s lead therapeutic program, ETC-101, is the world’s first AI-designed bispecific T cell engager. It targets PRAME, a validated antigen present in many cancers but absent from healthy tissue.

The lead asset currently demonstrates single digit picomolar affinity – a million-fold higher affinity than the native receptor – with no known cross-reactivity detected. Etcembly has advanced ETC-101 to this stage in 11 months, compared with two+ years for conventional TCR discovery and engineering pipelines. This was achieved while simultaneously developing the platform, so future programs should be even faster.