Myeloid Therapeutics’ name no longer fits its pipeline. Having expanded beyond the eponymous myeloid cells, the biotech has rebranded as Create Medicines and committed to an R&D strategy that spans in vivo multi-immune programming.
Columbia University researcher and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee, M.D., helped set the biotech up in 2021. After launching with $50 million, Myeloid went on to start phase 1 trials of the in vivo mRNA CAR candidates MT-302 and MT-303, therapies designed to reprogram immune cells to target TROP2 and GPC3, receptors that are overexpressed in some cancers.
Expression in myeloid cells is central to the effects of MT-302 and MT-303, hence the company’s original name. But the biotech has expanded its focus since launching, adding T cells and NK cells to its road map, and so has now changed its name to reflect the shift.
The rebranding follows a report earlier this year that the biotech had restructured. Preclinical teams reportedly bore the brunt of the cuts, which narrowed the company’s focus on its clinical candidates MT-302 and MT-303.
Yet Create Medicines discussed plans for its wider pipeline in its rebranding statement Monday, including signaling its intent to take a HER2 asset into the clinic this year and advance preclinical oncology and immunology programs.
“Our clinical work in more than 40 patients has proven that we can tolerably and repeatedly program immune cells inside the body,” CEO Daniel Getts, Ph.D., said in the announcement. “We are now extending those capabilities to program multiple immune lineages for deeper, more durable responses, starting with MT-304, our HER2 multi-immune CAR in breast cancer. In parallel, we are advancing the first-ever RNA retrotransposon-based in vivo CAR-T for B-cell depletion in oncology and autoimmunity.”
MT-304 marks the company’s first move beyond myeloid cells, as it engages both NK and myeloid cells. In addition to that, the aforementioned all-RNA CAR-T candidate and its two initial programs, Create’s preclinical pipeline includes other multi-lineage programs spanning oncology and immunology.
Create said its syndicate of investors remains “highly committed to its continued success.” Most recently, the biotech raised $73 million in 2023 from investors including Hatteras Investment Partners, Arch Venture Partners, Newpath Partners and 8VC.