Caribou Biosciences, a Phase 1 biotech developing gene edited cell therapies for multiple cancers, raised $304 million by offering 19 million shares at $16, the high end of the range of $14 to $16. The company offered 2 million more shares than anticipated. It originally planned to offer 13.5 million shares at $14 to $16, before increasing the proposed share offering on Thursday.
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.
Caribou Biosciences plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol CRBU. BofA Securities, Citi, and SVB Leerink acted as joint bookrunners on the deal.
