Focused on a chimeric antigen receptor-macrophage (CAR-M) technology that it believes can offer therapeutic benefit in solid tumors where CAR T-cell products have failed, Carisma Therapeutics Inc. announced on 21 September that it will make its way into the public market, out-vying 41 other companies to reverse-merge with troubled Sesen Bio, Inc. Valuation of the merger was not disclosed, but the deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter, would result in Sesen shareholders owning about 42% of the merged company and Carisma shareholders 58%.
Sesen has been winding down since receiving a US Food and Drug Administration complete response letter in August 2021 that meant the Cambridge, MA-based firm likely would need to conduct another lengthy, expensive Phase III trial of lead candidate Vicineum (oportuzumab monatox) in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. (Also see "Where Next For Sesen Bio’s Bladder Cancer Therapy Vicineum?" - Scrip, 18 August, 2021