MiNK Therapeutics' ARPA-H award: $87 million funds all of BoSS, and MiNK's team gets up to $7.3 million

MiNK Therapeutics (Nasdaq: INKT) announced before the market opened on Wednesday, September 30, 2026 that it had been selected for an ARPA-H program called BioStabilization Systems, or BoSS. The up to $87 million attached to the news is ARPA-H's commitment across the whole four-year program, spread over four contracts and three teams. MiNK is a partner on one of those teams, led by the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, whose award is up to $7.3 million. INKT rose 20.23% in the first minute after the 7:57 a.m. ET headline, from 13.25 to 15.93, and ten minutes later it was at 12.11, 8.60% below where it started.

What ARPA-H is paying for

Cell therapies are shipped and stored frozen at about -196°C. BoSS aims to keep them viable at about 21°C, room temperature, a change the program calls a 200-degree leap, which would free their delivery from the cold chain. The three funded approaches are thin-film freeze-drying, freeze-assisted droplet drying, and light-responsive gels processed with microfluidics, and ATCC tests the results independently.

The awards were public before MiNK's release: UC Davis announced its CYBORGEL team's award of up to $36.5 million on September 25, and AABB reported the full program on September 29.

Where MiNK fits

The Draper team, called Reversible Ambient Biostabilization, pairs AI-assisted experimental design with freeze-assisted droplet drying. MiNK supplies its agenT-797 cell platform, manufacturing infrastructure and cell-therapy expertise. A release from CaseBioscience, another team member, put the team's award at up to $7.3 million with a first phase of 15 months that began on September 24, 2026. Neither release says how the money is divided among the team's members or whether the $7.3 million covers all four years.

The award beside MiNK's balance sheet

MiNK reported $8.8 million of cash on June 30, 2026, down from $13.4 million at the end of 2025, and a second-quarter net loss of $3.1 million, or $0.62 a share. Its quarterly report includes a going-concern warning, and it owes $16.1 million to related parties, which Agenus has agreed not to call. The whole Draper team award is smaller than MiNK's cash on hand, and the company has not said what part of it MiNK will receive.

The INKT reaction, measured

The headline crossed at 7:57:40 a.m. ET, during pre-market trading. The reference price two minutes earlier was 13.25. One minute after the headline the stock printed 15.93, up 20.23%, and ten minutes after it printed 12.11, 8.60% below the reference, so the jump had reversed before 8:08 a.m. No volume reading was available for the window.