Cabaletta Bio Announces Expansion of Sponsored Research Agreement with the University of Pennsylvania

Collaboration deepens pipeline with CAAR design and optimization effort in three additional B cell-mediated autoimmune diseases

PHILADELPHIA, May 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cabaletta Bio, Inc. (Nasdaq: CABA), a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of engineered T cell therapies for patients with B cell-mediated autoimmune diseases, today announced the expansion of its Sponsored Research Agreement (SRA) with the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). The agreement expands the scope of sponsored research to include three additional B cell-mediated autoimmune diseases under the direction of Aimee Payne, M.D., Ph.D., an Associate Professor of Dermatology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Penn Clinical Autoimmunity Center of Excellence, and a co-founder of Cabaletta Bio and co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Board.

“We are excited to expand our partnership with Cabaletta to design additional product candidates within the field of B cell-mediated autoimmune diseases where we believe that a targeted cell therapy approach to treat patients is possible. By leveraging our experience in optimizing CAAR design and collaborating with the laboratory team at Cabaletta, we look forward to advancing preclinical studies in a broader range of autoimmune diseases,” said Dr. Payne.

“Over the past two years, our collaboration with Dr. Payne’s lab has produced two product candidates, including our lead clinical program in mucosal pemphigus vulgaris and our lead preclinical program in MuSK myasthenia gravis, which is now advancing to Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling studies. Encouraged by the past successes from our collaboration, we have leveraged our CABA platform to identify and prioritize three additional disease targets. Through this expanded agreement with Penn, we hope to be able to accelerate the discovery and development of three additional engineered T cell therapeutic candidates,” said Steven Nichtberger, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Cabaletta Bio.

Cabaletta Bio also has a license agreement with Penn that provides the Company with access to multiple patent families covering CAAR T cell therapy as applied to the field of B cell-mediated autoimmune and alloimmune diseases. Concurrently with the expansion of the SRA, this license is also being amended to add certain intellectual property relating to one of the three undisclosed disease targets.