CREATE Medicines is working on a clinical-stage pipeline for cancer, while its autoimmune programs are still in preclinical testing.
CAR T specialist CREATE Medicines has raised $122 million to advance in vivo programs for autoimmune and cancer indications, joining an already-competitive space filled with some of the industry’s biggest players.
CREATE takes a “multi-immune programming” approach to CAR T treatment with a proprietary mRNA-based technology that can program T cells, natural killer cells and myeloid cells within the patient’s body. This platform has produced a clutch of candidates for cancer, which the series B money will help move through clinical testing, according to a Thursday news release.
In particular, the startup pointed to MT-303, an investigational in vivo therapy that encodes a CAR receptor targeting the GPC3 protein, a key marker of certain malignancies. Early clinical data for the asset indicate an “extremely compelling response profile” when used as a frontline therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma, CREATE’s news release said.
CREATE is also working on MT-302 in TROP2 cancers, particularly as a first-line option for gastroesophageal junction carcinoma, according to the biotech’s website. The cancer portfolio also includes a HER2 program.
In autoimmune diseases, CREATE’s pipeline is still preclinical. Additional series B proceeds will bankroll the development of CRT-402, a next-generation CD19-targeting CAR T therapy that in nonhuman primate models has shown “deep and durable B cell depletion,” the company said. CREATE plans to push CRT-402 into the clinic but has yet to provide a concrete timeline for this.
The startup is also advancing a dual-targeting CD19/BCMA program “designed to broaden therapeutic reach across refractory autoimmune indications,” according to the press announcement. CREATE will use the series B haul to further develop this approach.
“Our ability to engineer multiple immune cell populations directly in vivo has the potential to fundamentally reshape treatment paradigms across autoimmune disease and oncology,” CEO Daniel Getts said in a prepared statement.
Despite a recent series of high-profile pullbacks from the cell therapy space, the CAR T modality has enjoyed continued investment, including from some of the industry’s heaviest hitters. Just last month, Eli Lilly swallowed Kelona Therapeutics for up to $7 billion, gaining an early-stage lentiviral in vivo CAR T candidate. That deal came two months after Lilly snapped up Orna Therapeutics for $2.4 billion, marking the pharma’s entry into the CAR T arena with what it termed the biotech’s “clinical trial-ready” pipeline, which is focused primarily on autoimmune conditions.
Gilead, too, has put a lot of money into CAR Ts this year to bolster an existing cell therapy portfolio, with its $7.8 billion pickup of Arcellx in February.
