Pfizer has acquired around 4.7 million Caribou common shares at a price of $5.33 per share, pursuant to the terms of a Securities Purchase Agreement dated 29 June 2023
Pfizer invests $25m in Caribou. (Credit: Pfizer Inc.)
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has made a $25m equity investment to buy a minority stake in biotechnology firm Caribou Biosciences.
Pfizer has acquired around 4.7 million Caribou common shares at a price of $5.33 per share, pursuant to the terms of a Securities Purchase Agreement dated 29 June 2023.
Caribou president and CEO Rachel Haurwitz said: “We believe Pfizer’s investment in Caribou highlights the potential of our clinical programs and we are excited to establish this partnership with one of the world’s premier biopharmaceutical companies.
“We are actively advancing our allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy pipeline and look forward to providing updates from all of our programs over the next six months, including 6-month dose escalation data from our ANTLER Phase 1 clinical trial for CB-010, dose escalation updates on our CaMMouflage Phase 1 clinical trial for CB-011, and submission of an investigational new drug application for CB-012.”
Caribou will use the funds to advance CB-011, an immune-cloaked allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy currently being assessed in the CaMMouflage Phase 1 trial in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (r/r MM).
Allogeneic CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapies in Caribou’s pipeline will remain entirely under the company’s ownership and management.
In conjunction with the investment, Sriram Krishnaswami, vice president and development head of multiple myeloma, Pfizer Global Product Development, has also joined Caribou’s Scientific Advisory Board.
Krishnaswami said: “We are encouraged by Caribou’s chRDNA genome-editing technology and the potential of allogeneic cell therapies as a promising off-the-shelf approach to cancer treatment.
“Pfizer has a long history of supporting early, innovative science in the biotech ecosystem, and we look forward to supporting Caribou as they continue to advance their ANTLER Phase 1 trial for CB-010, as well as their clinical program for CB-011, an allogeneic anti-BCMA cell therapy for multiple myeloma.”