Fortress Biotech's subsidiary, Helocyte, has secured an option agreement with City of Hope for exclusive worldwide rights to use a novel bispecific CMV/HIV CAR T Cell Therapy for HIV-1 treatment. The therapy has shown promising results in preclinical studies, eradicating HIV from latent reservoirs. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has granted $11.3 million to fund the Phase 1 clinical trial at City of Hope, which has been accepted by the FDA.