Carisma Therapeutics Inc. ( CARM ) shares are trading higher on Friday following the company’s announcement of a significant development in its collaboration with Moderna.

What To Know: Carisma has nominated its first in vivo CAR-M development candidate targeting Glypican-3 (GPC3) for the treatment of solid tumors, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This milestone has triggered a $2 million payment to Carisma from Moderna.

The development candidate leverages Carisma’s expertise in engineering chimeric antigen receptor monocytes and macrophages (CAR-M) with Moderna’s mRNA and lipid nanoparticle platform. This collaboration aims to create novel in vivo cell therapies for oncology, with pre-clinical data showing promising results in redirecting myeloid cells to attack cancer cells directly in vivo.

What Else: Michael Klichinsky, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Carisma, emphasized the significance of targeting GPC3, a highly expressed tumor antigen in HCC. Lin Guey, Chief Scientific Officer of Therapeutics Research Ventures at Moderna, expressed excitement about the progress and the potential for further development of CAR-M therapies for solid tumors.

Additionally, HC Wainwright & Co. also reiterated a Buy rating on the stock, maintaining a price target of $8.

CARM Price Action: Carisma shares were up by 14.9% at $1.55 according to Benzinga Pro.

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Image: Steve Buissine from Pixabay.