No easy ride for Turnstone
Problems at yet another biotech specialising in TIL therapies, in this case Turnstone Biologics, won’t boost enthusiasm for this type of approach. Turnstone on Friday said it would axe 60% of its workforce and curtail preclinical work in an effort to focus on its lead phase 1 TIL (tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte) project, TIDAL-01. The group floated on Nasdaq just over a year ago, raising $80m for a pipeline of TIL assets, but has evidently found it impossible to raise more cash as its valuation dwindled to barely $10m. At least TILs remain Turnstone’s key focus; the same can’t be said for Achilles, which last month discontinued TIL trials to focus on other cell therapies, or Instil Bio, which in August switched from TILs – the focus of its 2021 IPO – to a newly licensed bispecific antibody. The one notable TIL success has been Iovance’s Amtagvi, which did secure US approval; however, that came after years of delays, and Iovance is having to launch solo. There have been other disappointments, but plenty of clinical work on TILs continues, much of it in China.
Selected work on tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs)
Company | Selected projects | Mechanism of action |
---|---|---|
Iovance Biotherapeutics | Amtagvi approved | TIL |
Grit Biotechnology | GT101 in ph2 | TIL |
Hervor Therapeutics | HV-101 in ph1/2 | TIL |
Intima Bioscience | TIL-CISH in ph1/2 | CISH inactivated TIL |
AbelZeta Pharma | C-TIL051 in ph1 | TIL |
AgonOx | AGX-148 in ph1 | CD39+/CD103+/CD8+ TIL |
BioSyngen | BST02 in ph1 | TIL |
Lyell Immunopharma | LYL845 in ph1 | TIL |
NeogenTC | NEOG-100 in ph1 | TIL |
Obsidian Therapeutics | OBX-115 in ph1/2 | mbIL-15 TIL |
Shanghai Juncell Therapeutics | GC101 in ph1 | TIL |
Turnstone Biologics | TIDAL-01 in ph1 | TIL |
BioNTech | BNT221 (ex Neon) disappointed at ESMO 2023 | Personalised neoantigen-specific TIL |
Instil Bio | TIL work discontinued except ITIL-306 | FOLR1-CoStAR TIL |
Achilles Therapeutics | ATL001 discontinued | Personalised neoantigen-specific TIL |
OriCell Therapeutics | Pipeline no longer lists TILs | TIL |
Immatics | Pipeline no longer lists TILs | Personalised TIL |
Source: OncologyPipeline.
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