Caribou Biosciences, a Phase 1 biotech developing gene edited cell therapies for multiple cancers, filed on Thursday with the SEC to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering.
Caribou Biosciences is using its novel CRISPR platform, CRISPR hybrid RNA-DNA, or chRDNA (pronounced "chardonnay"), to develop genome-edited allogenic cell therapies. The company is initially targeting cell therapies for the treatment of cancers with cell surface targets for which autologous CAR-T cell therapeutics have previously shown proof of concept, including CD19, BCMA, and new targets. Caribou's lead program, CB-010, is a CAR-T cell therapy with PD-1 removed from the cell surface. CB-010 is currently in a Phase 1 trial for the treatment of relapsed or refractory B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma and is expected to report initial data in 2022.
The Berkeley, CA-based company was founded in 2011 and booked $12 million in collaboration revenue for the 12 months ended March 31, 2021. It plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol CRBU. BofA Securities, Citi, and SVB Leerink are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.
