CAR-T
The startup, launched out of CEO Kevin Parker’s grad school idyll during the COVID lockdowns, is primed to find new targets where Big Pharmas won’t dare.
While the benefits of AI are clear, the amount data sets needed for effective AI integration is proving to be a challenge. This is particularly true for cell therapy companies as they are eagerly seeking ways to reduce development costs. Two experts at Charles River Laboratories provide insights by giving their takeaways from their own AI integrations.
The $48 million award, granted through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, will help Kernal take its in vivo mRNA-encoded CAR T therapy forward.
The pivotal Phase II trial is testing Allogene’s CAR T candidate cemacabtagene ansegedleucel for large B-cell lymphoma. ALLO-647 was being used as a preparative lymphodepletion therapy.
Dispatch seeks to address two main challenges of immunotherapies in solid tumors: the lack of a target and the immunosuppressive tumor environment.
The high court sides with HHS on HIV PrEP drugs; Health Secretary RFK Jr.’s newly appointed CDC vaccine advisors discuss thimerosal in flu vaccines, skip vote on Moderna’s mRNA-based RSV vaccine; FDA removes CAR T guardrails; AbbVie snaps up Capstan for $1.2B to end first half; and psychedelics take off again with data from Compass and Beckley.
The all-cash buyout, which gives AbbVie access to Capstan Therapeutics’ in vivo edited CAR T therapy for B cell–mediated autoimmune diseases, adds to a growing sense of momentum in M&A, according to BMO Capital Markets.
The cell and gene therapy company is cutting 47 employees and its entire lupus program to focus resources on two CAR Ts. The move follows a reconfiguration last year to move into immunology.
The biotech is exploring opportunities for a reverse merger or other business combinations. CFO and now interim CEO Anup Radhakrishnan will take charge of these negotiations.
Having established success in cancer, biopharma is now looking to leverage CAR T therapies against a new target, autoimmune disorders, with several early- to mid-stage readouts expected this year.
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