Carisma jumps as drug discovery under Moderna deal leads to $2M payment

rafal_olechowski Carisma Therapeutics ( NASDAQ: CARM ) climbed ~29% premarket Friday after the cell therapy developer said it would receive $2M for discovering a cancer drug candidate as part of a collaboration with Moderna ( NASDAQ: MRNA ). Nominating the first development candidate under the partnership, the company said that the unnamed drug targets Glypican-3, a cancer antigen highly expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer. The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based company added that the $2M it is entitled to receive will be a milestone payment that Moderna ( MRNA ) agreed to pay when the duo joined hands in 2022 to develop chimeric antigen receptor monocyte (CAR-M) cancer therapies.

“This milestone represents a significant step forward in the development of immunotherapies for solid tumors and an advance for the in vivo cell therapy field,” said Carisma’s ( CARM ) science chief, Michael Klichinsky. More on Carisma Therapeutics Carisma to cut 37% of workforce, stock falls 8% Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on Carisma Therapeutics Historical earnings data for Carisma Therapeutics Financial information for Carisma Therapeutics.