USA – Caribou Biosciences, Inc., a Berkeley, Calif.-based clinical-stage CRISPR genome editing biotechnology company, closed a $115m Series C financing.
The round was co-led by new premier healthcare investors Farallon Capital Management, PFM Health Sciences, and Ridgeback Capital Investments. Additional new investors include AbbVie Ventures, Adage Capital Partners LP, Avego Bioscience Capital, Avidity Partners, Invus, Janus Henderson Investors, LifeSci Venture Partners, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Therapy Acceleration Program® (LLS TAP), Monashee Investment Management, LLC, Point72, and funds managed by Tekla Capital Management LLC. Existing investors participating in the round included Heritage Medical Systems, Maverick Ventures, and Pontifax Global Food and Agriculture Technology Fund (Pontifax AgTech). Santhosh Palani, Ph.D., Partner at PFM Health Sciences, and Jeffrey Long-McGie, Managing Director at Ridgeback Capital Investments, are joining Caribou’s Board of Directors.The company intends to use the funds for further develop its proprietary, next-generation CRISPR technology platform and to advance its pipeline of wholly-owned allogeneic immune cell therapies for oncology with best-in-class potential.Led by Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., co-founder, and Rachel Haurwitz, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Caribou has developed a next-generation CRISPR technology platform which has advanced a pipeline of allogeneic cell therapies for oncology.CB-010, its lead allogeneic CAR-T cell program, targets CD19 and is being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical trial for patients with relapsed/refractory B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. CB-011, Caribou’s second allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy, targets BCMA for the treatment of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma and is immunologically cloaked for enhanced persistence. CB-012, the third allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy, targets CD371 for the treatment of relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia. The company is also developing iPSC-derived allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell therapies for solid tumor indications. Last month, Caribou announced a collaboration and license agreement with AbbVie for the research and development of two additional, unnamed CAR-T cell therapies.04/03/2021
