Press release
First In Vivo CAR-M Lead Candidate Nominated Under Carisma-Moderna Collaboration
First lead candidate to address a solid tumor indication with significant unmet medical need Supportive pre-clinical proof of concept data reported at SITC
About this update from Moderna, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"First lead candidate to address a solid tumor indication with significant unmet medical need\nSupportive pre-clinical proof of concept data reported at SITC 2023 that demonstrated feasibility, tolerability and early efficacy of in vivo CAR-M therapy utilizing mRNA/LNPs in solid tumors\nPHILADELPHIA, Dec. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Carisma Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: CARM) (\"Carisma\" or the \"Company\"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative immunotherapies, today announced the nomination of its first lead candidate under the collaboration with Moderna, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA). This first lead candidate will target an antigen present on a solid tumor with significant unmet medical need. This strategic collaboration brings together Carisma's chimeric antigen receptor macrophage (CAR-M) platform with Moderna's messenger RNA (mRNA) and lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technologies to generate and develop in vivo CAR-M therapeutics for oncology.\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n\"Following the compelling pre-clinical proof of concept data shared at SITC 2023, we believe in vivo CAR-M therapeutics that utilize Moderna's mRNA/LNPs have the potential to benefit patients with a broad variety of cancers,\" stated Michael Klichinsky, PharmD, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Carisma. \"The delivery of this first candidate demonstrates our ability to create novel in vivo CAR therapies that can be advanced toward the clinic. We are proud of the significant contributions made by both of the scientific teams at Carisma and Moderna towards this exciting program. We look forward to completing IND-enabling studies with the lead candidate and are excited about the prospect of bringing this therapy forward for patients with advanced solid tumors together with Moderna.\"\nLin Guey, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Therapeutics Research Ventures and Biotherapeutics at Moderna, stated, \"We are excited with the progress we've made to advance in vivo cell therapy (CAR-M) in collaboration with Carisma. Combining Carisma's deep expertise in myeloid cell biology with our mRNA/LNP platform has allowed us to quickly advance the first lead candidate and we look forward to furthering its development, along with our continued collaboration with Carisma to develop novel therapies to treat patients.\"\nPre-clinical...