19 November 2020 - - US-based CRISPR genome editing biotechnology company Caribou Biosciences, Inc has executed an exclusive license agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center under which Caribou has rights to fully human anti-CD371 scFvs and intellectual property related thereto in the field of allogeneic CD371-targeted cell therapies including CAR-T, CAR-NK, or iPSC-derived cell products, the company said.

The anti-CD371 scFvs were developed in the laboratory of Renier Brentjens, M.D., Ph.D. at MSK in collaboration with the Tri-Institutional Therapeutic Discovery Institute (Tri-I TDI).

Tri-I TDI is a non-profit drug discovery company wholly owned by MSK, Weill Cornell Medicine, and The Rockefeller University (www.tritdi.org). MSK has the sole responsibility for licensing these scFvs and the related intellectual property for commercialization.

In-licensing these anti-CD371 scFvs further expands Caribou's pipeline of allogeneic cell therapies for hematological malignancies. CB-010, Caribou's lead allogeneic CAR-T program, targets CD19 and has been cleared by the FDA for clinical evaluation.

CB-011, Caribou's second allogeneic CAR-T therapy, targets BCMA. Caribou's next-generation genome editing technologies enable high efficiency and specificity multiplex engineering, which is critical for the manufacture of CB-010 and CB-011.

Caribou implements multiple strategies to boost CAR-T cell persistence to overcome T cell exhaustion and prevent rapid immune-mediated clearance.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Caribou is a leading clinical-stage CRISPR genome editing biotechnology company founded by pioneers of CRISPR biology. The company is developing an internal pipeline of off-the-shelf genome-edited CAR-T and natural killer cell therapies.