Oct 7, 2026 —
Caribou Biosciences is winding down after failing to raise the funding needed for a late-stage trial of its off-the-shelf CAR-T therapy. The Berkeley-based company, founded out of the lab of CRISPR Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna, is discontinuing clinical development of its two CRISPR-edited allogeneic CAR-T programs, including vispa-cel for advanced B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and is cutting staff while it explores strategic options.
Allogeneic, or donor-derived, CAR-T aims to make cell therapy available off the shelf rather than manufacturing it one patient at a time. The field has run into competition from improved frontline regimens, bispecific antibodies, and emerging in vivo CAR-T approaches.
Caribou’s close is another sign of how hard the funding environment has become for cell therapy developers without near-term commercial revenue.
