Caribou Biosciences shares crucial CAR-T therapy results

Adam Feuerstein is a senior writer and biotech columnist, reporting on the crossroads of drug development, business, Wall Street, and biotechnology. He is also a co-host of the weekly biotech podcast The Readout Loud and author of the newsletter Adam’s Biotech Scorecard. You can reach Adam on Signal at stataf.54.

Caribou Biosciences said Monday that its off-the-shelf CAR-T therapy induced complete and durable remissions in patients with advanced B-cell lymphoma.

The study results, while preliminary, are comparable to benchmarks set by currently approved, patient-specific CAR-T therapies for lymphoma — an achievement that could push the off-the-shelf CAR-T field forward after years of setbacks and broaden access to cell therapy for blood cancers.

In the study, 64% of patients treated with Caribou’s therapy, called vespa-cel (formerly CB-010), achieved a complete response. The overall response rate was 82%. At one year, 51% of the vespa-cel-treated patients remain alive without their cancer worsening.