Shares of the clinical-stage cell therapy company Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ: ATRA) are under heavy pressure today following a fatality in an ongoing, early-stage dose escalation trial. In response to this clinical setback, the biotech's shares were down by a hefty 12% as of 9:49 a.m. ET Friday morning.
Ahead of the opening bell, Atara announced that Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), where the trial is being conducted, informed the Food and Drug Administration that an advanced recurrent mesothelioma patient had passed away. The patient was reportedly being treated with the next-generation autologous chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy ATA2271, which is being co-developed by Atara and its partner Bayer .
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Why Atara Biotherapeutics Stock Is Sinking Today