Needham initiated coverage on Cartesian Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:RNAC), a private company that went public in November following its reverse merger/ private placement financing with Selecta Biosciences.
Cartesian is developing re-dosable mRNA CAR-Ts for autoimmune disease. RNA CARTs don’t require prior lymphodepletion and can, therefore, access a broader patient pool than most other cell therapies that require Cy/Flu.
Descartes-08, a lead candidate from Cartesian, is a personalized anti-BCMA CAR-T therapy designed for treating myasthenia gravis (MG), a rare disorder affecting approximately 130,000 patients in the U.S. and EU5 combined.
The current standard of care (SOC) for MG involves drugs targeting acetylcholine receptors (AChR), steroids, and ...