Public Company Edition: Fourth quarter 2023 fundraising fell 25.1% from Q4 2022, including a 24.2% drop in follow-on dollars, but recent activity has been robust, including $300m and $350m offerings by 4DMT and Autolus. Also, BMS sold $13bn in notes to fund Karuna and RayzeBio deals.

Sana claims to has cracked one of allo-CAR-Ts biggest challenges, blocking NK cells from destroying the therapies, and for now, investors are impressed.

Umoja’s technology is meant to enable development of CAR-Ts that could potentially overcome the challenges associated with autologous cell therapies, especially related to manufacturing.

CAR-T therapy-associated T-cell malignancies that the US FDA is investigating could make the treatments less attractive in autoimmune diseases than in oncology, but patients in both settings already accept some cancer risk with other available medicines.