When Gilead acquired CAR-T leader Kite Pharma, it made a crucial decision not to fully integrate it. This preserved Kite's distinct, individualized therapy operating model, which is fundamentally different from a traditional "off-the-shelf" drug company, proving a key lesson in M&A strategy for novel platforms.

The most common investor misconception is that cancer vaccines have "never worked." The key rebuttal is that past failures targeted generic, shared antigens. The new generation of vaccines is fundamentally different, targeting specific mutations unique to each patient's tumor, which changes the entire paradigm.

The focus in advanced therapies has shifted dramatically. While earlier years were about proving clinical and technological efficacy, the current risk-averse funding climate has forced the sector to prioritize commercial viability, scalability, and the industrialization of manufacturing processes to ensure long-term sustainability.

Dr. Vibha Jawa's career shows a powerful strategy: learning drug development fundamentals in large companies (Amgen, Merck) and applying them in nimble startups. This cycle across different environments accelerates learning and deepens expertise in a specialized field like immunogenicity.

CEO Christian Leisner identifies a single decision as a game-changing milestone: focusing their T-cell engagers on "clean but challenging" tumour antigens. He vividly recalls the meeting where this choice set a clear, relevant strategic direction that the company still follows years later.

Even though companies like Moderna (mRNA) and Transgene (viral vector) use different platforms, positive results from any of them help validate the entire individualized neoantigen approach for investors and clinicians. The massive unmet medical need ensures the market is large enough to support multiple successful players.

While personalized cancer vaccines require extracting and processing a patient's tumor, Create Medicines' in vivo approach is entirely off-the-shelf. By delivering the programming directly into the body, they enable the patient's own immune system to do the complex, personalized work of attacking the cancer itself.

Create Medicines chose LNP-delivered RNA for its in vivo platform to give physicians control. Unlike permanent lentiviral approaches, repeatable dosing allows for adapting to tumor antigen escape and managing durability and safety over time. This flexibility is a core strategic advantage for complex diseases like solid tumors.

Rather than waiting for positive Phase 2 results, Transgene is using part of its €105M financing to prepare its manufacturing processes for a potential Phase 3 trial. This strategic foresight aims to prevent manufacturing delays and accelerate the timeline to market if the data is successful.