Lakefront offloads CAR-T programs to Armed Cell as Mankind Pharma takes control of the Belgian startup

Why it matters: The sale gives cancer cell-therapy research that Lakefront was shutting down another chance to reach patients, with fresh financing and former Galapagos CEO Paul Stoffels among the executives returning to develop the technology they helped bring into Galapagos in 2022. Lakefront, which retains potential financial upside from the sale, is building a new pipeline focused on immunology and inflammation, led by a T-cell engager for autoimmune diseases.

• Lakefront CEO Henry Gosebruch told BioSpace in January that advancing the programs would require massive investment in an intensely competitive CAR-T market, and described bringing them to patients as Stoffels’ personal mission. An Armed Cell spokesperson told European Biotechnology that Stoffels had described seeing patients remain disease-free for more than five years after a single cell-therapy treatment, comparing its impact with the introduction of triple-drug therapy for HIV.

The deal: Under the completed sale, Lakefront could receive up to $230 million (€205 million) in milestones and “a low-single-digit royalty” in addition to the €8 million upfront. Armed Cell says the milestones are regulatory and commercial, but their specific triggers are undisclosed.

• Separately, Mankind has agreed to acquire 70% of Armed Cell for €48 million through a Dutch subsidiary, payable in installments. The investment anchors an announced financing round exceeding €50 million, including contributions from Armed Cell’s founders, to advance its lead programs into clinical trials and expand research teams in Europe and the U.S.

Backstory: When Galapagos acquired AboundBio in 2022, John Mellors headed the U.S. antibody-engineering company, whose research Galapagos intended to combine with CAR-T manufacturing technology acquired separately from CellPoint. Today, Willemijn Kremer, previously a Galapagos cell-therapy executive, is Armed Cell’s founding CEO; Stoffels chairs the company, and Mellors is chief scientific officer.

• Galapagos’ 2025 annual report says a dual-targeted, armed CAR-T candidate was on track for an investigator-initiated trial in late 2025, but the company decided not to start it following its decision to wind down cell therapy.
• A search for a buyer of the wider cell-therapy business produced no viable proposals. “At the beginning of January [2026], LKFT announced the start of the wind-down of the cell therapy activities which is now substantially complete,” a Lakefront spokesperson told European Biotechnology.

How it works: Armed Cell says the five acquired assets include lead programs for non-Hodgkin lymphoma and small-cell lung cancer. Its multi-targeting CAR-T designs aim to make it harder for cancer cells to escape recognition, while additional human-protein payloads are intended to help the engineered immune cells persist and function in hostile tumors.

• In a statement to European Biotechnology, Mellors said Armed Cell aims for durable remissions after a single treatment using engineered cells that “can also engage other components of the host immune system to eliminate cancer cells.” The company has not disclosed the antigens targeted by its lead candidates or the identities of the proteins used to arm them.
• Mankind’s stock-exchange disclosure also describes in vivo CAR-T generation — engineering therapeutic cells inside the patient instead of manufacturing them separately — as a future ambition, without saying whether it is part of the acquired portfolio.

Reality check: All five transferred assets are preclinical. Neither company’s announcement provides comparative results showing whether the extra engineering produces more durable tumor control without greater toxicity — a recognized concern with some immune-stimulating CAR-T payloads.

• Armed Cell has not disclosed even an approximate timetable for testing the candidates in patients.

Lakefront’s next act: After acquiring Ouro Medicines with Gilead in June, Lakefront is developing gamgertamig, a BCMAxCD3 T-cell engager intended to deplete B cells and plasma cells involved in autoimmune disease. It expects registrational studies to begin in 2027.

• Lakefront remains exceptionally well-funded thanks largely to a $5.1 billion partnership signed with Gilead in 2019, when the company was known as Galapagos. Despite years of drug development spending and setbacks, it still held €2.24 billion in cash and financial investments at the end of June. In August, the company forecast that at least €1.6 billion would remain available for acquisitions and other strategic priorities after funding its pipeline through gamgertamig’s first approval.

Bottom line: Lakefront has found a buyer for a cancer cell-therapy portfolio it chose not to fund, while retaining a potential return from its success. Armed Cell has secured backing to pursue the research, but has yet to demonstrate that more sophisticated engineering yields safer, longer-lasting cancer responses.