Philly’s Carisma Therapeutics slashed its workforce to 6 from 46 for sale or wind down
The University of Pennsylvania spinout said it has no intention to resume research and development work.
Carisma Therapeutics Inc, a Philadelphia biotech company founded by two University of Pennsylvania researchers, has slashed its workforce to six employees from 46 at the end of last year, as it prepares for a sale of assets or a wind down of operations.
The announcement Monday said the University City firm had ended all research and development activity and would only retain employees needed to pursue efforts to secure deals for its therapeutics under development for liver fibrosis and cancer, as well as other assets.
Carisma, which had $17.9 million in cash at the end of last year, said it expected to have enough money to stay afloat into the second half of this year while executives try to put together a transaction that will allow the company’s work with engineered disease-fighting cells.
“We believe deeply in the potential of our liver fibrosis and oncology programs, which have shown compelling preclinical results, and are well-positioned for future development,” CEO Steven Kelly said in a news release. “I’m incredibly proud of our team’s pioneering efforts and remain optimistic about the future of our technology.”
Three years ago, when money was still flooding the biotech sector, Carisma had better news. COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna in 2022 gave Carisma a $45 million upfront payment that it used to develop new cancer treatments for Moderna.
As of February, Moderna, which is based in Cambridge, Mass., had chosen 12 candidates for further research, according to Carisma’s annual report filed this week. If Moderna were to commercialize all of those candidates, Carisma could receive up to $253 million per product, the report said.
Some of that money would go to Penn, which licensed the underlying technology developed by Penn researchers Saar Gill and Michael Klichinsky to Carisma in 2017. Klichinsky became Carisma’s chief scientific officer in 2022.
Gill has since cofounded another Philadelphia biotech, Interius BioTherapeutics, which is working on a new way to deliver genes to specific cells to fight cancer.