Senti tries to buck the Car-NK trend

While Car-NK cell therapies continue to disappoint – Caribou exited this space in July, and just last week Fate announced a change of leadership, after several setbacks – one company hopes to buck the trend. The micro cap Senti Bio has claimed two MRD-negative complete remissions among the first three AML patients given its lead Car-NK therapy, SENTI-202, and these very early case reports were enough to back a concurrent $38m private placement. The patients were given the lowest dose of 1 billion SENTI-202 cells, and though all three developed grade 4 haematological toxicity Senti says it will now continue enrolling into a 1.5 billion-cell cohort. SENTI-202 uses an "or-gated" construct that targets CD33 or FLT3, and the phase 1 trial comprises relapsed AML/MDS patients with CD33 and/or FLT3 expression. The project is based on a licence to work carried out at the NCI into logic-gated Car therapies for CD33-expressing cancers, to which Senti gained rights four years ago. Though Senti closed up 360% on Monday, the company is sitting at a fraction of the $600m valuation it carried when it went public via a SPAC.

Senti Bio's financing history

Source: company filings.