When they work, T cells work great. And the folks at Avidea Technologies Inc. want to make them work more often. Combining expertise in immunology and polymer chemistry, the Baltimore-based startup is developing antigen delivery technology to improve T cell-targeted vaccines.

Matthew Ros, chief strategy and business officer for Epizyme Inc., said the company is “not providing specific guidance at the moment” about the sales force that will be deployed to market Tazverik (tazemetostat) in follicular lymphoma (FL), an indication for which U.S. regulators are considering the oral, first-in-class EZH2 inhibitor. “But I can assure you we’ve planned very thoughtfully” about the effort, he said. “That's always been a part of why we thought epithelioid sarcoma [ES] was such a strategically important component of the overall business strategy to get on-the-ground experience.” The sales force numbers 19 for now.