Circio enters in vivo cell therapy evaluation agreement with Acuitas Therapeutics

15 Apr 2026 07:00 CEST

* Acuitas and Circio have entered an evaluation agreement for in vivo CAR-T
cell therapy, an area of rapidly accelerating industry activity
* Circio s circVec circular RNA expression technology will be tested together
with Acuitas proprietary T-cell-targeted lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery
system
* The aim is to assess whether Acuitas LNP technology can be deployed to
deliver circVec for novel in vivo CAR-T therapy with superior durability

Oslo, Norway, 15 April 2026 -- Circio Holding ASA (OSE: CRNA), a biotechnology
company developing novel circular RNA expression technology for gene and cell
therapy, today announces that it has initiated a technology evaluation
agreement in the area of in vivo CAR-T cell therapy with Acuitas Therapeutics,
based in Vancouver, Canada.

In vivo CAR-T cell therapy is a novel therapeutic area of high R&D and deal
activity in the pharmaceutical industry. Current mRNA-based approaches are
promising, but the short duration of expression of only a few days may limit
their efficacy and applicability. Circio has previously reported that its
proprietary circVec technology can achieve up to six months expression in
lymphocytes in vivo. This feature provides an extended therapeutic window that
can open multiple new development opportunities for in vivo cell therapy.

"The in vivo CAR-T field is accelerating rapidly, and two pre-clinical stage
circular RNA companies with such programs were recently acquired in major
pharma transactions", said Dr. Victor Levitsky, CSO of Circio. "Acuitas has
developed a state-of-the-art LNP delivery platform to specifically deliver
Circio s circVec constructs into T-cells. By combining the unrivaled
expression durability of circVec with the delivery precision of Acuitas LNPs,
we aim to establish a novel in vivo CAR-T concept for cancer and auto-immune
diseases where an extended expression window is required."

As part of the agreement, Acuitas will formulate circVec into their
proprietary LNPs designed for active targeting to CD8+ or CD4+ T-cells. Circio
will subsequently test the activity and durability of these modified T-cells
both in vitro and in vivo. The goal is to determine the therapeutic potential
of circVec for in vivo CAR-T therapy in the area of oncology and auto-immune
diseases.

"We are excited to begin working with Circio in this technology evaluation
agreement, combining our expertise in lipid nanoparticle technology with their
circular RNA technology", said Dr. Ying Tam, CSO of Acuitas Therapeutics.
"Through this evaluation, we aim to explore new possibilities in
next-generation therapeutics, including in vivo CAR T approaches, and advance
the development of transformative treatments for patients."

About Acuitas Therapeutics
Acuitas Therapeutics Inc., the global leader in lipid nanoparticle (LNP)
delivery systems for nucleic acid therapeutics, is a Vancouver-based company
collaborating with pharmaceutical and biotech companies, academic researchers,
and global health organizations to advance a broad range of medicines for a
variety of diseases.

Acuitas' clinically validated LNP technology has had a profound global impact
--- most notably enabling the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, COMIRNATY®,
which has protected billions of people in more than 180 countries. Its
technology also enables ONPATTRO® by Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, the first
FDA-approved RNAi therapeutic for treating the rare and fatal disease
transthyretin amyloidosis. More recently, Acuitas' LNP technology has
delivered other groundbreaking firsts: the first in-human proof of concept for
genome base editing and the first personalized CRISPR therapy.

Today, Acuitas is advancing next-generation LNP to support a variety of
therapeutic modalities. This includes targeted LNP for extrahepatic and in
vivo CAR T-cell therapies, epigenetic medicines to modulate gene expression
without altering DNA, and multivalent vaccines for infectious diseases ---
such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis --- as well as oncology vaccines,
including personalized cancer vaccines.

For more information, visit www.acuitastx.com (http://www.acuitastx.com/).

For further information, please contact:
Erik Digman Wiklund, CEO
Phone: +47 413 33 536
Email: erik.wiklund@circio.com

Neil Hunter -- Hunter PR
Phone: +44 782 125 5568
Email: neiljameshunter@gmail.com

About Circio
Building circular RNA expression systems for enhanced gene and cell therapies

Circio Holding ASA is a biotechnology company developing novel circular RNA
expression technology for gene and cell therapy.

Circio has established a unique circular RNA (circRNA) vector expression
technology for next generation RNA, DNA and viral therapeutics. The
proprietary circVec platform is based on a modular genetic construct designed
for efficient biogenesis of multifunctional circRNA inside target cells. The
circVec platform has applications in multiple therapeutic settings, including
genetic medicine, cell therapy and chronic disease. It has demonstrated
75-fold increased RNA half-life and up to 50-fold enhanced protein expression
vs. conventional mRNA-based viral and non-viral vector systems, with the
potential to become a new gold-standard gene expression technology. The
circVec R&D activities are being conducted by the wholly owned subsidiary
Circio AB in Stockholm, Sweden.

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