Caribou delays readout, betting on off-the-shelf CAR-T therapies

Adam Feuerstein is a senior author and biotech columnist, reporting on the crossroads of drug growth, enterprise, Wall Road, and biotechnology. He’s additionally a co-host of the weekly biotech podcast The Readout Loud and writer of the publication Adam’s Biotech Scorecard. You may attain Adam on Sign at stataf.54.

Caribou Biosciences is delaying the readout of medical trials involving its CRISPR T-cell therapies for blood most cancers — hoping that longer follow-up will ship sufficient constructive information to maintain the packages and the struggling biotech firm alive.

The corporate’s resolution, introduced Thursday, quantities to an all-or-nothing wager on the viability of two off-the-shelf CAR-T therapies which have, to date, failed to fulfill the excessive expectations set when Caribou emerged from the lab of CRISPR scientist and Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna.

CAR-T cells can arm different immune cells with engineered proteins to struggle most cancers, examine says

As soon as valued at $700 million, Caribou in the present day is price $78 million — lower than its money readily available — with a inventory that trades underneath $1.