Catamaran Bio Winds Down Operations Amid Funding Challenges, Seeks Partners for CAR-NK Pipeline

Jan 31, 2024 11:43 CST Updated 11:43

Catamaran Bio

Biological New Drug Developer for Cancer Treatment

Recently, Alvin Shih, CEO of CAR-NK cell therapy company Catamaran Bio, told Endpoints News in an email: "We recently decided to begin a gradual wind-down of operations." Alvin Shih also posted on social media that Catamaran Bio is about to cease day-to-day operations and is seeking strategic partners for its CAR NK cell therapy candidates and technology. In a statement provided to Fierce Biotech, Alvin Shih said the decision was driven by the financing environment over the past year, which has caused many biotech companies to struggle.

Catamaran Bio, Founded in 2020, is committed to developing novel CAR-NK cell therapies for the treatment of various cancers, including solid tumors. The company's proprietary technology platform, TAILWIND, enables the engineering of NK cells. According to the company’s official website, the TAILWIND platform offers three key advantages.

First, the CAR structures currently used in CAR-NK therapy cannot optimally engage NK cell signaling pathways, resulting in poor cancer cell killing. Catamaran Bio has designed NK cell-specific CAR structures that better activate NK cells and enhance their cancer-killing effects.

▲ Designing NK cell-specific CAR structures can better activate NK cells (Image source: Catamaran Bio's official website)

Secondly, the presence of the tumor microenvironment (TME) affects the effectiveness and durability of immune responses. Catamaran Bio has designed new biological characteristics for CAR-NK cells through synthetic biology methods, enabling the cells to better sense and overcome immunosuppressive signals within the TME.

▲By using synthetic biology methods, new biological characteristics were designed for CAR-NK cells, enabling them to better sense and overcome immunosuppressive signals in the TME (Image source: Catamaran Bio's official website)

Besides, when using viral vectors to deliver payloads to CAR-NK cells, it is impossible to deliver large molecular weight payloads. Catamaran Bio has solved this problem by using a transposon system. Based on previous work, Catamaran Bio currently has two CAR-NK products under research for the treatment of solid tumors, and the proceeds from this financing will also be used to advance the research of these two products.

▲ By using the transposon system, larger molecular weight payloads can be delivered to CAR-NK cells.

Currently, Catamaran Bio has two main products under development: CAT-248 and CAT-179. CAT-248 is an off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell therapy targeting CD70-positive tumors. CAT-248 is an allogeneic CD70-targeted CAR-NK cell therapy developed by Catamaran through its TAILWIND™ platform.

E.N.D

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