预约演示
Scoop: Carisma stole CAR-M Thunder for a while, but a Utah biotech is quietly raising funds to enter the fray
2022-10-20
细胞疗法疫苗并购
There’s calm before the storm. And there’s calm after the storm.
That’s the case for a Utah biotech that for years has flown under the CAR-M radar, being outpaced by the likes of Moderna-allied Carisma Therapeutics. The upstart worked calmly, put walls around its IP and purposefully steered clear of talks with institutional investors and pharmas before it would open its doors to a potential storm of attention.
Michael Boyer
CEO Rob Mooney tells Endpoints News the Brigham Young University spinout, named Thunder Biotech, seeks $20 million to go where CAR-T therapies have struggled to go: solid tumors. And leading the research is a chief medical officer familiar with CAR-Ts. Michael Boyer, a University of Utah blood transplant and cell therapy leader, helped investigate Novartis’ CAR-T Kymriah.
Solid tumors devise ways of preventing tBrigham Young University the tumor microThunder Biotechter macrophages, which populate the tumor microenvironment. One phenotsolid tumorsphages, M2, is actually a friend to tumors, though, so companies like Thunder and Carisma wanUniversity of Utaho a foe by converting them to the M1 state, in which they go oNovartisinflammatory offensive and destroy cancer cells.
Then there’s the hope of doing the opposite in central nervous system indications — think Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis — by converting M1s into M2s to support an anti-inflammatory approach in which the cell therapies tell the body’s immune system that “everything’s good here,” essentially calming down the work of T cells, Mooney explained.
The biotech, well behind Carisma Therapeutics in terms of testing in humans, plans to be in the clinic in multiple sclerosisex vivo program in cancer, Mooney said. But if the team’s nanoparticle delivery, in vivo program “overtakes” that, then timelines will shift.
Continuing push beyond CoCarisma Therapeuticserna partners with 'CAR-M' biotech on in vivo cancer cell therapiescancer
To get there, Thunder iCovid-19 vaccinesCovid-19g $20 milliModernaonvertible promissory notes, Mooney confircancer Endpoints, noting the company had previously been slow to file recent SEC papers on prior financing rounds. Angel investors, friends and family have so far injected about $25 million into the coffers, Mooney said.
University of Pennsylvania spinout Carisma kicked off the CAR-M era with the start of its Phase I ex vivo program in February 2021.
University of Pennsylvaniathere areCarismaocumented, and of course, they are looking at broadening their in vivo offering, as well. What we’re doing is what other people are doing,” Mooney said of the Provo, UT-based cell therapy developer that he now leads. “The question is, who can do it better?”
The first target is likely mesothelin, a tumor antigen found in multiple cancers, and then HER2. Carisma has taken the opposite order, and the company, which landed on Nasdaq through a reverse merger, teamed up with Moderna for in vivo cancer programs. There’s also potential for monocytes, the precursor to macrophages.
Licensed out of Thunder CSO Kim O’Neill’s lab at BYU in 2016, the CAR-M biotech initially attracted Mooney’s financial interest, rather than management inclinations.
He offered up capital at the suggestion of physicians who told him the scientists had “something really special” and had “cracked the code” on the tools needed to work with macrophages. In recent months, he was asked to steer the ship into the next phase, and he joined three weeks ago, with the caveat that he be allowed to simultaneously continue leading Curza, a preclinical anti-infective biotech. That other biotech, which is government-funded, is also approaching another capital infusion, he said.
更多内容，请访问原始网站
文中所述内容并不反映新药情报库及其所属公司任何意见及观点，如有版权侵扰或错误之处，请及时联系我们，我们会在24小时内配合处理。
生物医药百科问答
全新生物医药AI Agent 覆盖科研全链路，让突破性发现快人一步
立即开始免费试用!
智慧芽新药情报库是智慧芽专为生命科学人士构建的基于AI的创新药情报平台，助您全方位提升您的研发与决策效率。
立即开始数据试用!
智慧芽新药库数据也通过智慧芽数据服务平台，以API或者数据包形式对外开放，助您更加充分利用智慧芽新药情报信息。