TCT: life-saving therapy for cancer
Living-cell therapy for blood cancers, built on exclusive Korean and American science, with a response rate above 90% reported in patients.
TCT is a cell and gene therapy company founded in 2024 and headquartered in Istanbul, led by its Co-Founder and CEO, Dr. Erkan Mankan. In February 2025 it secured the exclusive rights for Türkiye to Nespe-cel, a CD19 CAR-T therapy for B-cell blood cancers developed in South Korea, and it is building its manufacturing on an American flexible-factory platform, with a GMP centre in Antalya.
CAR-T treatment takes a patient’s own T cells, equips them with a receptor that recognises the CD19 marker on cancerous B cells, and returns them to the patient as a living drug. CAR-T therapies have been approved since 2017 for leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma, and are now being tested in lupus and other autoimmune diseases.
In interim Phase 2 data presented in 2025, Nespe-cel showed an overall response rate of 94% among 32 evaluable patients, with a complete response in 63%. With Medixcel, TCT plans a world-standard cell therapy facility on Saudi soil, so that Saudi patients are treated at home.
Sources: interim Phase 2 results reported in 2025; U.S. FDA approvals 2017; Medixcel Company Profile 2026.
Medixcel was honoured to take part in the fourth edition of the Riyadh Global Medical Biotechnology Summit (RGMBS 2026), held in Riyadh from 14 to 16 September 2026, together with our partner TCT.
What the partnership brings to the Kingdom
Every Saudi activity below is planned under the 2026 agreement and will be delivered with Medixcel.
Cancer care within reach
A programme designed to place life-saving cell therapy within reach of Saudi patients, treated at home rather than abroad.
Made in the Kingdom
A world-standard cell therapy plant planned on Saudi soil, creating skilled bioprocessing jobs.
Faster for patients
Manufacturing in Riyadh removes weeks of international cold-chain transport from a patient’s wait.
Beyond blood cancer
CD19 CAR-T is being tested in lupus and other autoimmune diseases, a frontier the partnership is following closely.
From agreement to Saudi capability
The programme as planned. Dates follow regulatory and construction milestones.
Partnership and summit
Medixcel and TCT presented the programme together at RGMBS 2026 in Riyadh, 14 to 16 September 2026.
Facility planning and regulatory pathway
Site, GMP design and the SFDA pathway for an advanced therapy manufactured in the Kingdom.
Technology transfer and GMP facility
Manufacturing know-how transferred to a world-standard cell therapy facility in Riyadh.
First Saudi patients treated at home
CD19 CAR-T made in Riyadh for Saudi patients, with Saudi bioprocessing teams.
Medixcel and TCT at the Riyadh Global Medical Biotechnology Summit
Medixcel took part in the fourth edition of RGMBS 2026 together with its partner TCT and its Co-Founder and CEO, Dr. Erkan Mankan, presenting the group’s plans for advanced therapies in the Kingdom.
