Caribou lays off staff; Roche walks away from Relay

2024-07-17

Today, a brief rundown of news from Caribou Sciences and Relay Therapeutics as well as updates from Corden Pharma, Celldex Therapeutics, and Beam Therapeutics that you may have missed.

Caribou Biosciences is laying off staff one month after a clinical setback sent its shares tumbling. In a regulatory filing Tuesday, the company said it has reduced its workforce by 12%, or by 21 positions. Caribou also has discontinued preclinical research on its allogeneic CAR-NK platform. Together, the moves will extend the company’s cash runway and focus resources on its CAR-T therapies, data for one of which it presented last month. — Delilah Alvarado

Roche is walking away from a cancer drug collaboration with Relay Therapeutics that it struck in 2020. Relay disclosed in a filing Tuesday that Roche elected to terminate the partnership, which centered on an experimental SHP2 inhibitor SHP2 inhibitor the companies sought to pair with KRAS-blocking medicines. Relay had received $75 million upfront from Roche and stood to gain hundreds of millions of dollars more in milestone payments if the collaboration had succeeded. — Delilah Alvarado

CordenPharma, a contract development and manufacturing organization, will invest about 900 million euros ($984 million) over the next three years to expand its capacity to make peptide-based drugs in the U.S. and Europe. The spending plans, which are CordenPharma’s largest strategic investment to date, are designed to position the company to meet rising demand for producing GLP-1 medicines, like those now used to treat diabetes and obesity. — Ned Pagliarulo

Celldex Therapeutics has begun two Phase 3 trials testing its experimental drug barzolvolimab in adults with chronic spontaneous urticaria, or hives. The studies are set to enroll more than 1,800 people who continue to have symptoms despite treatment with antihistamines. Celldex’s drug, which showed potential in mid-stage testing, targets a protein thought to control the immune cells that can cause skin swelling and inflammation. — Ned Pagliarulo

Terry-Ann Burrell, the chief financial officer of Beam Therapeutics for the past five years, is leaving the gene editing company next month to return to JPMorgan Chase, where she’ll be the vice chairman of investment banking. During her time as Beam’s CFO, she helped the company raise nearly $500 million via an initial public offering and a subsequent private placement. Beam has begun a search for her successor. — Ned Pagliarulo

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