Senti Biosciences, Inc. announced a strategic plan to focus internal resources on SENTI-202, SENTI-401 and, with potential partners, to continue to pursue the development of Gene Circuits for other programs, including solid tumors. The Company does not intend to invest in the clinical development of SENTI-301A, for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), on its own at this time; however, the Company believes there is significant market opportunity for SENTI-301A, especially in territories within Asia where HCC is more prevalent than in the United States. Accordingly, the Company is actively pursuing strategic geographic partnerships for clinical development of SENTI-301A.

This business realignment will streamline internal efforts and is expected to extend the Company's cash runway through at least the first quarter of 2024. With SENTI-202, a Logic Gated (OR+NOT) off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell product candidate that is designed to target and eliminate acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells while sparing the healthy bone marrow, the Company has commenced IND-enabling studies and remains on track to file an IND application in the second half of 2023. In addition, the Company has initiated the technology transfer to its cGMP manufacturing facility as part of its goal to provide clinical-scale manufacturing for its off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell product candidates, including SENTI-202.

The SENTI-401 program incorporates multiple Gene Circuit technologies to target solid tumors expressing the CEA tumor antigen, including colorectal cancer. Senti Bio has recently demonstrated, including data presented at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) conference in November 2022, that CAR-NK cells expressing a potent CEA-targeting activating CAR along with two multifunctional cytokines (calibrated-release IL-15 and IL-21) exhibited significant activity in killing CEA-expressing tumors in vitro, even in the presence of inhibitory TGF-beta, and in mice. Furthermore, Senti Bio's optimized NOT gate technology was shown to achieve up to 98% protection of model healthy cells that express CEA along with a protective antigen, VSIG2.

The Company believes the combination of Logic Gating and Multi Arming Gene Circuits within a single CAR-NK development candidate demonstrates the potential for Senti Bio's Gene Circuit technologies to be expanded to a wide range of solid tumor indications beyond SENTI-202 and SENTI-401. Beyond oncology, the Company is continuing its strategic research collaborations with Spark Therapeutics on next-generation AAV gene therapy, and BlueRock Therapeutics on iPSC-derived cell therapies.