All articles tagged with #biotech funding
Caribou Biosciences is shutting down its clinical pipeline and laying off staff after failing to secure capital for late-stage trials. The company, which developed off-the-shelf cell therapies, is now seeking strategic alternatives like a merger or asset sale. Its stock plummeted following the announcement.
Caribou Biosciences is shutting down operations and laying off staff after failing to secure funding for a Phase 3 trial of its allogeneic CAR-T therapy, vispa-cel. The company, which spun out of Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna’s lab, had $113.8 million in cash but could not raise the capital needed to advance its pipeline. While its therapy showed efficacy comparable to approved autologous treatments, the company is seeking strategic alternatives like a sale or merger as investor interest shifts toward in vivo gene editing approaches.
The U.S. ARPA-H is awarding $125 million to enable the rapid, on-demand production of personalized RNA-based therapies, accelerating the development of patient-specific genetic medicines; five groups have been selected for funding.
Khartis Therapeutics, led by former XinThera executives after Gilead’s acquisition, emerged with a $50M Series B (total funding now $95M) to push an oral IGF-1R inhibitor for thyroid eye disease into clinical trials in Q1 2027, aiming to replace IV therapies like Tepezza and Lumvoa; the company also has other internal programs and strong investor backing.
MeiraGTx secured up to $400 million from Oberland Capital to push its late-stage gene therapies toward launch, anchored by an initial $125 million loan with low single-digit royalties and a $10 million equity stake. The deal also includes up to $50 million in milestones for FDA approvals (one per program for bota-vec and AAV2-hAQP1), up to $100 million more via mutual commitments, and a right for Oberland to buy an additional $15 million in equity. In addition, $50 million could follow a positive AQUAx2 phase 2 readout for dry mouth. Beyond bota-vec and AAV2-hAQP1, MeiraGTx is advancing AAV-GAD for Parkinson’s, with a 2029 follow-up study, and noted a 2025 Lilly license for AAV-AIPL1, highlighting a pipeline with several near-term regulatory milestones.
Scribe Therapeutics filed for a Nasdaq IPO to gauge investor appetite for early-stage biotech and gene-editing startups, backed by major investors including RA Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, OrbiMed and Avoro Capital.
City Therapeutics, a next-gen RNAi startup led by former Alnylam executives, has raised about $99.5 million to fund the clinical development and data collection for its first three RNAi medicines.