Caribou Biosciences Announces Appointment of Stephen J. Schuster, MD, to its Scientific Advisory Board

-- Dr. Schuster is a world-renowned hematologist and pioneer in CAR-T cell therapy development --

BERKELEY, Calif., May 08, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Caribou Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: CRBU), a leading clinical-stage CRISPR genome-editing biopharmaceutical company, today announced the appointment of Stephen J. Schuster, MD, to its scientific advisory board (SAB). Dr. Schuster is an expert in treating patients with lymphoma and developing novel treatments, including pioneering the development of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapies.

“It’s an honor to have Dr. Schuster join our SAB. Dr. Schuster is a highly esteemed global leader in the lymphoma field and played an integral part in the development of the world’s first commercial CAR-T therapy,” said Rachel Haurwitz, PhD, Caribou’s president and chief executive officer. “Dr. Schuster’s dedication to patient care and cell therapy research and development offers Caribou invaluable perspectives. We have appreciated his advice as we move forward into second-line large B cell lymphoma patients for the dose expansion portion of the ongoing ANTLER Phase 1 clinical trial and advance additional therapies from our CAR-T cell therapy platform.”

Dr. Schuster is the Robert and Margarita Louis-Dreyfus Professor of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and Lymphoma and the director of the Lymphoma Program and Lymphoma Translational Research at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, with Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center. With a medical career spanning over 40 years, he is a world-renowned hematologist-oncologist with expertise in lymphoma and related diseases. His clinical and translational research has resulted in over 200 peer reviewed articles and participation in numerous clinical trials. After graduating AOA from Jefferson Medical College and completing his residency at Pennsylvania Hospital, Dr. Schuster completed clinical and research fellowships at the Cardeza Foundation for Hematologic Research. In 1989, he became a member of the Cardeza Foundation at Jefferson Medical College. Dr. Schuster joined the University of Pennsylvania in 1998.

“Caribou’s approach to developing CRISPR genome-edited allogeneic cell therapies has demonstrated encouraging six-month antitumor responses from CB-010 at the initial dose level evaluated in the ANTLER trial,” said Dr. Schuster. “As the field of cell therapy moves to earlier lines of treatment, it will be important to evaluate CB-010 in the larger second-line patient population.”

About CB-010
CB-010 is the lead product candidate from Caribou’s allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy platform and is being evaluated in patients with relapsed or refractory B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (r/r B-NHL). In the ongoing ANTLER Phase 1 trial, Caribou is enrolling second-line patients with large B cell lymphoma (LBCL) comprising four different subtypes of aggressive r/r B-NHL (DLBCL NOS, PMBCL, HGBL, and tFL). CB-010 is an allogeneic anti-CD19 CAR-T cell therapy engineered using Cas9 CRISPR hybrid RNA-DNA (chRDNA) technology. CB-010 is the first allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy in the clinic, to Caribou’s knowledge, with a PD-1 knockout, a genome-editing strategy designed to improve antitumor activity by limiting premature CAR-T cell exhaustion. CB-010 is also the first anti-CD19 allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy, to Caribou’s knowledge, to be evaluated clinically in the second-line setting and has been granted Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT), Fast Track, and Orphan Drug designations by the FDA. Additional information on the ANTLER trial (NCT04637763) can be found at clinicaltrials.gov.

About CB-011
CB-011 is the second product candidate from Caribou’s allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy platform and is being evaluated in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (r/r MM) in the CaMMouflage Phase 1 trial. CB-011 is an allogeneic anti-BCMA CAR-T cell therapy engineered using Cas12a chRDNA technology. CB-011 is the first allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy in the clinic, to Caribou’s knowledge, that is engineered to improve antitumor activity through an immune cloaking strategy with a B2M knockout and insertion of a B2M–HLA-E fusion protein to blunt immune-mediated rejection. CB-011 has been granted Fast Track designation by the FDA. Additional information on the CaMMouflage trial (NCT05722418) can be found at clinicaltrials.gov.

About CB-012
CB-012 is the third product candidate from Caribou’s allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy platform and is being evaluated in investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies. CB-012 is the first allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy, to Caribou’s knowledge, with both checkpoint disruption, through a PD-1 knockout, and immune cloaking, through a B2M knockout and B2M–HLA-E fusion protein insertion; both armoring strategies are designed to improve antitumor activity. CB-012 is engineered with five genome edits, enabled by Caribou’s patented next-generation CRISPR technology platform, which uses Cas12a chRDNA genome editing to significantly improve the specificity of genome edits.

About Caribou Biosciences, Inc.
Caribou Biosciences is a clinical-stage CRISPR genome-editing biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing transformative therapies for patients with devastating diseases. The company’s genome-editing platform, including its proprietary Cas12a chRDNA technology, enables superior precision to develop cell therapies that are armored to potentially improve antitumor activity. Caribou is advancing a pipeline of off-the-shelf cell therapies from its CAR-T and CAR-NK platforms as readily available treatments for patients with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors.

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Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements related to Caribou’s strategy, plans, and objectives, and expectations regarding its clinical and preclinical development programs, including its expectations relating to the timing of updates from its ANTLER Phase 1 clinical trial for CB-010 as well as the status and updates from its CaMMouflage Phase 1 clinical trial for CB-011, expectations about product developments in 2023, and expectations regarding the submission of an IND application for CB-012. Management believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made. However, such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks inherent in the development of cell therapy products; uncertainties related to the initiation, cost, timing, progress, and results of Caribou’s current and future research and development programs, preclinical studies, and clinical trials; and the risk that initial or interim clinical trial data will not ultimately be predictive of the safety and efficacy of Caribou’s product candidates or that clinical outcomes may differ as more patient data becomes available; the risk that preclinical study results observed will not be borne out in human patients; as well as other risk factors described from time to time in Caribou’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 and subsequent filings. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Except as required by law, Caribou undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.

Editor’s note: Dr. Schuster receives compensation as a member of the advisory board.

Caribou Biosciences Contacts:
Investors:
Amy Figueroa, CFA
investor.relations@cariboubio.com 

Media:
Peggy Vorwald, PhD
media@cariboubio.com