The first generation of cell therapies demonstrated how the patient’s own immune cells can be designed to look for cancer killers for tumors. Caribou Biosciences is one of the biotech companies developing next-generation cell therapies, which can provide cell therapies with more manufacturing and therapeutic advantages than their predecessors.
Caribou’s story, and perhaps its pedigree (Jennifer Doudna, the Nobel laureate for her CRISPR research and co-founder) attracted strong interest from investors, which allowed clinical-stage biotechnology to expand its IPO. The Berkeley, California-based company initially planned to issue 17 million shares at a price of US$14 to US$16 per share.Late Thursday, it promote The transaction size is 19 million shares, issued at the upper limit of the estimated price range, and raised 304 million US dollars. Caribou’s stock began trading on the Nasdaq on Friday under the ticker symbol “CRBU”.
More and more biotechnology companies are seeking allogeneic cell therapy, which is a kind of “off the shelf” therapy that can be made from donor cells in advance and then stored until needed. These therapies can provide speed advantages and save the time required to manufacture CAR-T therapies, which are produced by designing the patient’s own T cells in most manual processes that may take several weeks. But Caribou believes that when it comes to the multiple precise genome editing required to ensure the continued existence of cell therapy, the genome editing technology used in allogeneic cell therapy research has limitations.
Caribou calls his technology chRDNA (pronounced chardonnay), which is short for CRISPR hybrid RNA-DNA. The company said that in preclinical studies, this technology has demonstrated better specificity and efficiency, enabling multiple precise genome editing with “significantly reduced” levels of off-target editing. Caribou’s initial focus was on the development of allogeneic cell therapies for the treatment of blood cancers and solid tumors. The company is looking for CD19 and B cell maturation antigen (BCMA), cell surface targets that have been validated through early cell therapy, and other targets. But unlike the previous generation of cell therapy, Caribou says its cells can provide advantages.
“We use our chRDNA technology to enhance or protect our cell therapy by creating additional genome editing to increase the durability of anti-tumor activity,” the company said in its statement. Prospectus.
The leading Caribou candidate therapy CB-010 is a CAR-T therapy that, like the first-generation CAR-T, targets the CD19 protein expressed on blood cancer cells. However, Caribou’s CAR-T is made by using the company’s technology to remove PD-1 protein from the cell surface. The company stated in the document that knocking out this protein can increase the durability of the cell’s anti-tumor activity by destroying the pathways that cause rapid T cell failure. CB-010 is currently being evaluated in a phase 1 study, which will begin at the end of 2020 to recruit patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Preliminary data is expected next year.
Caribou’s next product candidate, CB-011, is an allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy targeting the protein BCMA. The company used its technology to integrate an “immune stealth method,” that is, removing a protein and inserting a transgene. This is to reduce the rejection of the patient’s T cells and natural killer cells to cell therapy, so that cell therapy has a longer-lasting activity against tumors. The project is in the preclinical development stage of multiple myeloma. A document seeking FDA approval to start clinical trials is expected to be ready next year.
The third project CB-012 is an allogeneic armored CAR-T cell therapy for acute myeloid leukemia against CD371. Caribou said this protein is an attractive target for AML because it is expressed on bone marrow cancer cells but not on hematopoietic stem cells. Caribou expects to submit an investigational new drug application in 2023.
Since its inception in 2011, Caribou stated that it raised $150.1 million before the IPO. According to the prospectus, its largest shareholder is President and CEO Rachel Haurwitz (Rachel Haurwitz), who holds a 6.3% stake after the IPO. The largest institutional shareholder is F-Prime Capital, which owns 6.07% of the company’s shares after the IPO.
In February, Caribou began to establish a partnership with AbbVie, paying 30 million US dollars in advance. The alliance calls on the company to use its technology to develop two allogeneic CAR-T therapies. Caribou can earn up to $150 million in milestone payments for each project, and up to $200 million in business milestone payments for each project. In the submitted documents, Caribou indicated that it may seek other collaborators.
As of June 30, Caribou reported that it had approximately US$129.6 million in cash. This sum, together with its IPO income, will be used for the entire company’s channels. The documents show that Caribou plans to pass the initial data report and spend US$90 million for the first phase of the CB-010 test. Another $80 million is used to support pre-clinical studies for research new drug applications and the potential launch of CB-011 and CB-012 clinical trials. The company plans to spend approximately $55 million on research and development of its platform for the production of natural killer cells from induced pluripotent stem cells, as well as discovery phase research that may lead to other projects.
Sophia Genetics’ SaaS health data platform IPO raises US$234 million
Sophia Genetics raised US$234 million Price It issued 13 million shares at a price of $18 per share, which is exactly the midpoint of its target price range. In addition to the IPO cash, Switzerland-based Sophia also added an additional $20 million from Instrumentarium Holdings, a subsidiary of GE Precision Healthcare, which has agreed to purchase shares in the newly listed company at the IPO price. Sophia’s stock will be traded on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “SOPH”.
Sophia’s software as a service platform analyzes digital health data. The company says its technology enables medical institutions to gain insights from their data.
The company said in its statement: “We envision a future where all clinical diagnostic test data is transmitted through a decentralized analysis platform that will provide insights supported by large real-world data sets and artificial intelligence.” Prospectus“We believe that a decentralized platform is the most powerful and effective solution to create the largest network, use data, and bring the benefits of data-driven medicine to customers and patients around the world.”
So far, Sophia’s products are only used for research purposes in the United States, and therefore cannot be used to diagnose or treat diseases. In the future, the company plans to seek in vitro diagnostic status or FDA approval for specific uses of its technology. In Europe, Sophia’s products are self-certified. The EU allows companies to self-certify in vitro diagnostic products, which means that no third-party intervention is required to confirm that the product meets European health, safety and environmental standards.
The first application of the Sophia platform was launched in 2014 to analyze next-generation sequencing data for cancer diagnosis. As of the end of June, the company counted about 330 applications used by healthcare providers, clinical and research laboratories, and biopharmaceutical companies. These entities are using the technology to gain insight into the field of diseases, including oncology, rare diseases, infectious diseases, cardiology, neurology, and metabolism.
In addition to clinical customers, Sophia also has customers in the biopharmaceutical field. These companies use it for drug discovery, clinical testing, and commercialization phases. The biopharmaceutical app was launched in 2019.
Sophia’s average annual revenue from each customer is just over $70,000. In 2020, the company reported total revenue of $28.4 million, an increase of 11.9% over the previous year. Sophia’s 2020 net loss is 39.3 million U.S. dollars. According to the prospectus, the IPO proceeds will be used for working capital and other company purposes, such as research and development, sales and marketing, supporting relationships with partners and customers in the healthcare field, and obtaining regulatory approval or approval.
Artificial intelligence-driven protein production platform prompts Absci to conduct a $200 million IPO
Absci has no plans to submit a drug pipeline for FDA review. It does not conduct clinical trials or even preclinical research. The company’s technology produces biologic drug candidates and production cell lines, all of which come from a technology called an artificial intelligence-driven integrated drug creation platform. Biopharmaceutical companies signed up as partners to use the platform. As the development of these drugs progresses and sales royalties, Absci will receive milestone payments if they enter the market.
In order to expand its technology and contract more partners to use it, Absci raised $200 million from the IPO. The Washington-based company issued 12.5 million shares at a price of $16 per share, which is the midpoint of its estimated price range. These stocks are traded on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “ABSI”.
The biological drug candidate developed by Absci originated from the technology founder and CEO Sean McClain described as a combination of artificial intelligence and synthetic biology.The protein produced by this platform is made of Escherichia coli, The company in its Listing application. These bacteria have been used to make insulin before. Absci went one step further and modified Escherichia coli to produce complex mammalian proteins that could serve as the basis for new therapeutic drug candidates. The company says its technology enables it to complete this work faster and more efficiently.
McLean said in a letter in the prospectus: “We believe that we can expand the biological possibilities, produce new types of protein-based drugs, and provide the best potential drug design opportunities to become a treatment reality for patients. “We believe that by combining cutting-edge artificial intelligence with synthetic biology, we are going beyond the limits of natural evolutionary trajectories, opening up new sequence space for potential proteins, and even adding new letters to the amino acid alphabet to realize new possibilities. Used for drug discovery.”
Currently, Absci has nine active clinical or preclinical projects in the hands of seven partners. The disclosed partners are Merck, Astellas subsidiary Xyphos Biotechnology, and Alpha Cancer Technologies. As of the end of June, Absci reported a cash position of US$99.5 million. The company stated in the prospectus that, combined with the proceeds from the IPO, the company plans to further invest and expand its technology and continue to seek more business opportunities. Absci also stated that it may use some of the cash for acquisitions, but it added that there is no such transaction yet.
Cytek Bio’s IPO raises US$200 million for cell analysis instruments
Cytek Biosciences, a company that sells cell analysis tools for research applications, raised approximately $200 million when it first went public.Company headquartered in Fremont, California Pricing More than 16.7 million shares at $17 per share, which is the midpoint of its estimated price range. Cytek issued approximately 11.7 million shares; the company’s shareholders sold nearly 2.8 million shares. Cytek’s stock will be traded on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “CTKB”.
Cytek has more than 620 customers worldwide. Listing applicationIts customer base is almost evenly distributed to customers in academia and government departments, as well as industry customers composed of companies in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, distributors, and contract research organizations. Cytek reported revenue of 92.8 million U.S. dollars in 2020, an increase of 60.3% over the previous year.
According to the prospectus, Cytek plans to spend between 112 million and 135 million U.S. dollars on manufacturing and between 44 million and 53 million U.S. dollars on business activities and marketing.
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