NORTH CHICAGO, Ill. and
BERKELEY, Calif., Feb. 10,
2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) and Caribou
Biosciences, Inc., a leading clinical-stage CRISPR genome editing
biotechnology company, announced today that they have entered into
a collaboration and license agreement for the research and
development of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapeutics.
Although allogeneic, "off-the-shelf" CAR-T cell therapies have
shown early promise in some cancer patients, the need for
overcoming the rejection of allogeneic CAR-T cells by the host
immune system remains a key challenge to their broader development.
Employing Caribou's CRISPR genome editing platform to engineer
CAR-T cells to withstand host immune attack would enable the
development of the next-generation of "off-the-shelf" cellular
therapies to benefit a broader patient population.
Under the multi-year agreement, AbbVie will utilize Caribou's
next-generation Cas12a CRISPR hybrid RNA-DNA (chRDNA) genome
editing and cell therapy technologies to research and develop two
new CAR-T cell therapies directed to targets specified by AbbVie.
AbbVie will have exclusive rights to Caribou's next-generation
Cas12a chRDNA genome editing and cell therapy technologies for the
selected targets. Caribou will conduct certain pre-clinical
research, development, and manufacturing activities for the
collaboration programs, and AbbVie will reimburse Caribou for all
such activities pursuant to the collaboration. AbbVie is
responsible for all clinical development, commercialization, and
manufacturing efforts. AbbVie has the option to pay a fee to expand
the collaboration to include up to an additional two CAR-T cell
therapies. Caribou will receive $40
million in an upfront cash payment and equity investment,
along with up to $300 million in
future development, regulatory, and launch milestones. Caribou may
also receive additional payments for commercial milestones as well
as global tiered royalties.
"We are excited to partner with AbbVie on the development of new
CAR-T cell therapies. This collaboration validates Caribou's
differentiated next-generation CRISPR genome editing technologies
that provide best-in-class efficiency and specificity," said
Rachel Haurwitz, Ph.D., President
and Chief Executive Officer of Caribou. "We believe AbbVie is an
ideal partner for Caribou as we expand upon the number of targets
and diseases addressable by our technologies. Genome-edited CAR-T
cell therapies hold tremendous potential for patients, and this
partnership accelerates our ability to address significant unmet
medical need."
"CAR-T therapies have shown to be a promising breakthrough in
cancer treatment," said Steve
Davidsen, Ph.D., Vice President, Oncology Discovery, AbbVie.
"Collaborating with Caribou and their cutting-edge CRISPR platform
will help AbbVie advance our efforts to deliver new hope for
patients."
About AbbVie
AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines
that solve serious health issues today and address the medical
challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on
people's lives across several key therapeutic areas: immunology,
oncology, neuroscience, eye care, virology, women's health and
gastroenterology, in addition to products and services across its
Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie,
please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.
About Caribou Biosciences, Inc.
Caribou is a leading clinical-stage CRISPR genome editing
biotechnology company founded by pioneers of CRISPR biology.
Outside of this collaboration, Caribou is advancing an internal
pipeline of allogeneic cell therapies for oncology. CB-010,
Caribou's lead allogeneic CAR-T cell program, targets CD19 and is
being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical trial for patients with
relapsed/refractory B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. CB-011, Caribou's
second allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy, targets BCMA for multiple
myeloma, and CB-012, Caribou's third allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy,
targets CD371 for acute myeloid leukemia. CB-011 and CB-012 are in
preclinical development. Additionally, Caribou is developing
iPSC-derived allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell therapies for
solid tumors. Through its next-generation CRISPR genome editing
technologies, Caribou is implementing multiple strategies to boost
CAR-T and NK cell persistence to overcome cell exhaustion and to
prevent rapid immune-mediated clearance. These sophisticated edits
drive the durability of clinical benefit of these off-the-shelf
medicines.
For more information about Caribou, visit www.cariboubio.com and
follow the Company @CaribouBio.
"Caribou Biosciences" and the Caribou logo are registered
trademarks of Caribou Biosciences, Inc.
AbbVie Forward-Looking Statements
Some statements
in this news release are, or may be considered, forward-looking
statements for purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995. The words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "project"
and similar expressions, among others, generally identify
forward-looking statements. AbbVie cautions that these
forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties
that may cause actual results to differ materially from those
indicated in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and
uncertainties include, but are not limited to, failure to realize
the expected benefits from AbbVie's acquisition of Allergan plc
("Allergan"), failure to promptly and effectively integrate
Allergan's businesses, competition from other products, challenges
to intellectual property, difficulties inherent in the research and
development process, adverse litigation or government action,
changes to laws and regulations applicable to our industry and the
impact of public health outbreaks, epidemics or pandemics, such as
COVID-19. Additional information about the economic, competitive,
governmental, technological and other factors that may affect
AbbVie's operations is set forth in Item 1A, "Risk Factors," of
AbbVie's 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K, which has been filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission, as updated by its
subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. AbbVie undertakes no
obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking
statements as a result of subsequent events or developments, except
as required by law.
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SOURCE AbbVie