Senti Biosciences, Inc. (“Senti Bio”), a biotechnology company
developing next-generation cell and gene therapies using its
proprietary gene circuit platform, today announced the completion
of its business combination with Dynamics Special Purpose Corp.
(“DYNS”; Nasdaq: DYNS), a special purpose acquisition company.
Senti Biosciences, Inc., the resulting combined company, will
commence trading on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol
“SNTI” on June 9, 2022.
“Over the last year, we have made significant pipeline progress
in optimizing our gene circuit technology and generating promising
data across our lead programs, SENTI-202 and SENTI-301, which we
plan to advance toward IND filings in 2023,” said Timothy Lu, MD,
PhD, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Senti Bio. “We
believe that with the funding from this successful transaction, we
are well positioned to maximize this unique opportunity to develop
the next generation of gene circuit-enabled cell and gene therapies
for patients in need.”
Senti Bio is developing next-generation cell and gene therapies
engineered with gene circuits, which are designed to reprogram
cells with biological logic to sense inputs, compute decisions and
respond to their respective cellular environments. Senti Bio's
oncology pipeline uses healthy adult donor-derived, natural killer
(NK) cells engineered with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) gene
circuits that are cryopreserved and dosed off-the-shelf. Senti
Bio’s oncology pipeline is primarily focused on three
preclinical-stage programs: SENTI-202, a Logic Gated (OR+NOT)
off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell therapy designed to target and eliminate
acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells while sparing the healthy bone
marrow; SENTI-301, a regulatable Multi-Armed off-the-shelf CAR-NK
cell therapy designed for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma
(HCC); and SENTI-401, a Logic Gated (NOT) off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell
therapy designed to target and eliminate colorectal cancer (CRC)
cells while sparing healthy cells elsewhere in the body. In
addition, the company is collaborating with Spark Therapeutics (a
member of the Roche Group) and BlueRock Therapeutics (a
wholly-owned and independently operated subsidiary of Bayer AG) on
applications of its gene circuit technology outside of
oncology.
Omid Farokhzad, MD, Executive Chair of the DYNS Board of
Directors, said, “We believe in the powerful potential of
engineering gene circuits with programmable computer-like logic in
cell and gene therapies. We look forward to continued progress from
the Senti Bio team including advancing product candidates towards
and into clinical trials, solidifying its clinical-scale cGMP
manufacturing capabilities, and expanding its gene circuit
offerings across multiple diseases and modalities via partnering
opportunities.”
Mostafa Ronaghi, PhD, CEO of DYNS added, “We have been very
impressed with Senti’s approach and platform, which has the
potential to define the future of cell and gene therapy. Senti’s
scientific founders and management are pioneers in the field of
mammalian synthetic biology and have assembled a highly qualified
team to use this platform to improve the lives of patients in
oncology and many other disease categories.”
Senti Bio received gross proceeds of approximately $140.3
million of the expected $156.5 million in connection with the
business combination, which included funds held in DYNS's trust
account of $84.5 million (net of redemptions), $50.6 million of the
expected $66.8 million in proceeds from a private investment in
public equity (PIPE) financing that closed concurrently with the
consummation of the business combination, and a recent $5.2 million
investment by Leaps by Bayer, the impact investment arm of Bayer
AG, through the purchase of a convertible note that was exchanged
(at $10.00 per share, with accrued interest canceled) at the
closing of the business combination for common equity with the same
rights as the PIPE shares. Senti Bio expects the proceeds from this
transaction, combined with cash on hand, to fund operations into
2024.
Investors in DYNS include funds managed by ARK Investment
Management LLC, funds and accounts managed by Counterpoint Global
(Morgan Stanley Investment Management), Invus, and funds and
accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., among
others.
Investors participating in the PIPE financing as of the closing
of the business combination included 8VC, Amgen Ventures, funds and
accounts managed by Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley Investment
Management), Invus, NEA, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy,
and T. Rowe Price funds, among others. Of the $66.8 million in
subscriptions for the PIPE financing, $16.2 million has yet to be
funded as one investor, who entered into a subscription agreement
concurrently with Senti Bio and DYNS’s execution of the business
combination agreement in December 2021, has not funded its
commitment. Senti Bio intends to enforce such one investor's legal
obligations under its subscription agreement. Solely for purposes
of consummating the business combination on June 8, 2022, Senti Bio
agreed to waive the $150 million available cash closing condition
under the business combination agreement previously entered into
with DYNS (as a result of such one investor failing to timely fund
its $16.2 million commitment).
DYNS’s board members, Dr. Omid Farokhzad and David Epstein, have
joined the Senti Bio Board of Directors. The other Senti Bio board
members are Susan Berland, Dr. James Collins, Dr. Brenda
Cooperstone, Dr. Timothy Lu and Edward Mathers.
Uses of Proceeds and Planned MilestonesProceeds
from the transaction are expected to provide Senti Bio with capital
to further develop its gene circuit technologies and therapeutic
pipeline, including:
- Conducting Investigational New Drug- (IND) enabling studies for
SENTI-202 and SENTI-301
- Building out clinical-scale current good manufacturing practice
(cGMP) capabilities and enabling cGMP runs for off-the-shelf CAR-NK
cell therapies; Alameda, CA, facility startup on track for year-end
2022
- Filing IND applications for SENTI-202 and SENTI-301 in
2023
- Advancing SENTI-202 and SENTI-301 toward Phase 1/2 dose
escalation clinical trials
- Advancing its gene circuit platform with additional programs,
such as SENTI-401 towards an anticipated IND filing in 2024, for
solid tumors
- Building out its gene circuit platform to expand modalities and
therapeutic areas through potential collaborations and/or
partnerships
Summary of Progress to Date
- Advanced SENTI-202, a Logic Gated off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell
therapy for the treatment of AML: generated preclinical data
demonstrating FLT3 OR CD33 NOT EMCN Logic Gate and a proprietary
calibrated release IL-15 (crIL-15) cytokine; presented at the
American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) 2022
meeting
- Advanced SENTI-301, a Multi-Armed off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell
therapy for the treatment of HCC: generated preclinical data
demonstrating a GPC3 targeting CAR, a Regulator Dial designed to
control expression of calibrated release IL-12 under the control of
an FDA-approved small molecule, and a proprietary crIL-15;
presented at the ASGCT 2022 meeting
- Advanced SENTI-401, a Logic Gated off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell
therapy for the treatment of CRC: generated preclinical data
demonstrating the use of gene circuits to target CEA expressing
cancer cells while protecting VSIG2 expressing healthy cells with
expression of multiple payloads to address the immunosuppressive
tumor microenvironment; presented at the American Association for
Cancer Research (AACR) 2022 meeting
- Commenced build out within an approximately 92,000 square foot
clinical-scale cGMP manufacturing facility for off-the-shelf CAR-NK
cell therapies
- Hired cell therapy and oncology drug development expert, Dr.
Kanya Rajangam as Chief Medical and Development Officer, to lead
Senti Bio's novel off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell oncology programs into
and through clinical development
- Established collaborations with biopharmaceutical companies,
Spark Therapeutics and BlueRock Therapeutics, to demonstrate the
broad potential of gene circuits, including Smart Sensors to
precisely detect distinct cell types or disease environments,
adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy for rare diseases and
induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) therapies for regenerative
medicines.
Advisors J.P. Morgan acted as lead capital
markets advisor to DYNS and as co-placement agent to DYNS on the
PIPE. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as financial advisor to
DYNS and as co-placement agent to DYNS on the PIPE. BofA Securities
acted as exclusive financial advisor to Senti Bio and as
co-placement agent to DYNS on the PIPE. Davis Polk & Wardwell
LLP acted as legal advisor to DYNS. Goodwin Procter LLP acted as
legal advisor to Senti Bio. Latham & Watkins LLP acted as legal
advisor to J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and BofA
Securities in their roles as placement agents for the PIPE.
About Senti BioOur mission is to create a new
generation of smarter medicines that outmaneuver complex diseases
using novel and unprecedented approaches. To accomplish this, we
are building a synthetic biology platform that may enable us to
program next-generation cell and gene therapies with what we refer
to as Gene Circuits. These Gene Circuits, which are created from
novel and proprietary combinations of DNA sequences, are designed
to reprogram cells with biological logic to sense inputs, compute
decisions and respond to their cellular environments. We aim to
design Gene Circuits to improve the intelligence of cell and gene
therapies in order to enhance their therapeutic effectiveness,
precision and durability against a broad range of diseases that
conventional medicines do not readily address. Our synthetic
biology platform utilizes off-the-shelf chimeric antigen receptor
natural killer (CAR-NK) cells, outfitted with these Gene Circuit
technologies, to target particularly challenging liquid and solid
tumor oncology indications. Our lead programs include SENTI-202 and
SENTI-301. SENTI-202 is a Logic Gated OR+NOT off-the-shelf CAR-NK
cell therapy designed to target and eliminate acute myeloid
leukemia (AML) cells while sparing the healthy bone marrow.
SENTI-301 is a Multi-Armed off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell therapy
designed for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We
anticipate filing Investigational New Drug (IND) applications in
2023 for both candidates. Over the past several months, Senti Bio
scientists have presented preclinical proof-of-concept data across
various programs including at the annual meetings of the American
Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT), the American Association
for Cancer Research (AACR), and the American Society of Hematology
(ASH). We have also demonstrated the breadth of our Gene Circuits
in other modalities and diseases outside of oncology and have
executed partnerships with Spark Therapeutics and BlueRock
Therapeutics to advance these capabilities. For more information,
please visit the Senti Bio website at https://www.sentibio.com.
About Dynamics Special Purpose Corp.DYNS was
formed in May 2021 for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital
stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization,
or similar business combination with one or more businesses. It
focused its search in healthcare and the life sciences, including
development platforms that enable applications in prevention,
diagnosis, treatment, or advanced biomaterials and, within that
context, life-sciences tools, enabling software, synthetic biology
and novel drug discovery.
Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release
contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of
the “safe harbor” provisions of the United States Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect to DYNS and
Senti Bio. These forward-looking statements generally are
identified by the words “believe,” “could,” “predict,” “continue,”
“ongoing,” “project,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,”
“strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “may,” “should,”
“will,” “would,” “will be,” “will continue,” “will likely result,”
“forecast,” “seek,” “target” and similar expressions that predict
or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of
historical matters. Forward-looking statements are predictions,
projections and other statements about future events that are based
on current expectations of Senti Bio’s and DYNS’s management and
assumptions, whether or not identified in this document, and, as a
result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking
statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding
estimates and forecasts of financial and performance metrics,
projections of market opportunity and market share, expectations
and timing related to preclinical, clinical and regulatory
milestones, potential benefits of the business combination and the
potential success of Senti Bio's business strategy, the initial
market capitalization and cash runway of the combined company, the
benefits of the business combination, as well as statements about
the potential attributes and benefits of Senti Bio’s product
candidates and the progress and timing of Senti Bio’s product
development activities, IND filings and clinical trials and
expectations related to the effects of the business combination and
the PIPE financing, including the unfunded portion thereof. These
forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes
only and are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on by
any investor as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction or a
definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and
circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will
differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are
beyond the control of Senti Bio and DYNS. Many factors could cause
actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking
statements in this document, including but not limited to: (i)
changes in domestic and foreign business, market, financial,
political and legal conditions, (ii) risks that the transaction
disrupts current plans and operations of Senti Bio and potential
difficulties in Senti Bio employee retention as a result of the
transaction, (iii) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be
instituted against Senti Bio or DYNS related to the Business
Combination Agreement or the transaction, or any governmental or
regulatory proceedings, investigations or inquiries, (iv)
volatility in the price of Senti Bio’s securities, which may arise
due to a variety of factors, including changes in the competitive
and highly regulated industries in which Senti Bio currently
operates and plans to operate, variations in operating performance
across competitors, changes in laws and regulations affecting
DYNS’s or Senti Bio’s business and changes in the capital structure
of the combined company, (v) the ability to implement business
plans, forecasts and other expectations after the completion of the
transaction, to realize the anticipated benefits of the
transaction, and to identify and realize additional opportunities,
(vi) the risk of downturns and a changing regulatory landscape in
Senti Bio’s highly competitive industry, (vii) risks relating to
the uncertainty of any projected financial information with respect
to Senti Bio, (viii) risks related to uncertainty in the timing or
results of Senti Bio’s preclinical studies and any future clinical
trials, product acceptance and/or receipt of regulatory approvals
for Senti Bio’s product candidates, (ix) the ability of the
combined company to compete effectively and its ability to manage
growth, (x) risks related to delays and other impacts from the
COVID 19 pandemic, (xi) the ability of the combined company to
issue equity or equity-linked securities in the future, and (xii)
the success of any future research, development and
commercialization efforts by the combined company.
Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on
forward-looking statements, and Senti Bio assumes no obligation and
does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events,
or otherwise. Senti Bio gives no assurance that Senti Bio will
achieve its expectations. The inclusion of any statement in this
communication does not constitute an admission by Senti Bio or any
other person that the events or circumstances described in such
statement are material.
Non-SolicitationThis press release does not
constitute (i) a solicitation of a proxy, consent or authorization
with respect to any securities or in respect of the Business
Combination or (ii) an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to
buy, or a recommendation to purchase any security of Senti Bio, or
any of its respective affiliates. No such offering or securities
shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the
requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as
amended.
Additional Information About the Business Combination
and Where To Find ItDYNS filed a registration statement on
Form S-4 (the “Registration Statement”) with the SEC, which was
declared effective on May 13, 2022. The Registration Statement
includes a proxy statement/prospectus. The proxy
statement/prospectus contains important information about DYNS,
Senti Bio and the business combination. Senti Bio’s stockholders
may access a copy of the Registration Statement, as well as other
documents filed with the SEC by DYNS, without charge at the SEC's
website located at www.sec.gov.
INVESTMENT IN ANY SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN HAS NOT BEEN
APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED BY THE SEC OR ANY OTHER REGULATORY
AUTHORITY NOR HAS ANY AUTHORITY PASSED UPON OR ENDORSED THE MERITS
OF THE BUSINESS COMBINATION OR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THE
INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN. ANY REPRESENTATION TO THE CONTRARY IS
A CRIMINAL OFFENSE.
Find more information at sentibio.comFollow us on
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Twitter: @SentiBio
Contact Senti Bio:
Deb Knobelman, PhD, CFO
Email: investors@sentibio.com
Kelli Perkins (Media)
Email: kelli@redhousecomms.com
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