Cell therapy and oncology–focused Carisma Therapeutics started layoffs late last year. Now the company plans to wind down fully.
Carisma Therapeutics, already running on a skeleton crew, announced that it is cutting most of the rest of its staff, laying off 42 employees to leave it with just six people.
The move was announced in the company’s annual report SEC filing. Carisma is looking at ways to wind down completely. The remaining six employees were deemed necessary “to pursue strategic alternatives and execute an orderly wind down of our operations,” the company said in the filing. “We may elect to commence bankruptcy or liquidation and dissolution proceedings, and such proceedings may delay our wind down timeframe, increase our costs, and decrease the cash, if any, that may be available for stockholders.”
The reduction will immediately cost the company $3.8 million, mostly in employee termination benefits, which will be paid out by the end of the year.
The news follows previous layoffs in December 2024, when Carisma cut one-third of its workforce, amounting to 23 full-time employees, including three executives and research and development staff.
The plan at the time was to reprioritize its pipeline—away from a HER2-directed autologous cell therapy platform, based on the company’s analysis that competition in HER2 treatments was too strong. That included ending development of CT-0525, a gene-modified autologous chimeric antigen receptor–monocyte (CAR-M) cell therapy for solid tumors. Instead, Carisma focused on other candidates in solid tumor oncology and liver fibrosis, as well as an mRNA/LNP nanoparticle program it was working on with Moderna.
Those plans are out the window now. According to the filing, the company is looking for “strategic alternatives to maximize value,” which could mean selling or licensing assets, collaborations with other companies, or the merger or sale of the company itself.
The assets Carisma is looking to sell off include CT-2401, an mRNA/LNP for liver fibrosis; CT-1119, a CAR-M for mesothelin-positive solid tumors; and the company’s engineering and CAR-M platforms.
