TILT Biotherapeutics Announces Data at ESMO on Its Oncolytic Immunotherapy Platform

HELSINKI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TILT Biotherapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing cancer immunotherapeutics, announces that the company presented yesterday clinical study results at the annual congress of the European Society of Molecular Oncology (ESMO).

The ESMO poster (1), presented by TILT with collaborators at the National Center for Cancer Immune Therapy Herlev Hospital, Copenhagen University, and CHU Nantes, provided an update on the company’s progress with its TILT-123 oncolytic immunotherapy asset designed to stimulate T-cells, currently in clinical trials in Denmark and France for metastatic melanoma.

Interim data from six patients shows that TILT-123 monotherapy or a combination of TILT-123 and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) is deemed safe with the lowest two dose levels of TILT-123. Also, the company’s engineered oncolytic virus appears to be highly tumor specific, as extended replication in tumors was seen even at the lowest dose level, without quantifiable shedding into saliva or urine.

TILT Biotherapeutics’ CEO, Akseli Hemminki, a biotech entrepreneur and oncologist who has personally treated 300 patients with eleven different oncolytic viruses, said, “The annual ESMO congress is one of the world’s most prestigious oncology events, and I am delighted we were able to present there about recent progress with our oncolytic immunotherapy platform. We have now proceeded to the third dose level in our T215 and T115 trials, with patients in France, Denmark, and Finland.”

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(1) Poster title and link: “A phase I, first-in-human, study of TILT-123, a tumor-selective oncolytic adenovirus encoding TNFa and IL-2, in participants with advanced melanoma receiving adoptive T-cell therapy with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes." The clinical trial details are here.

 

About TILT Biotherapeutics

TILT Biotherapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing cancer therapeutics based on its proprietary oncolytic adenoviruses armed with molecules including cytokines that can stimulate, or suppress, T cells. The company’s patented TILT^® technology, which can be delivered locally and systemically, modifies the tumor microenvironment and eliminates its ability to suppress immune responses to cancer, thereby enhancing T-cell therapies such as checkpoint inhibitors and CAR T therapies.

TILT’s lead asset, TILT-123, is a 5/3 chimeric serotype adenovirus armed with two human cytokines; TNF alpha and IL-2. TILT-123 has demonstrated a 100% response rate in pre-clinical cancer models in vivo, and it is currently in Phase 1 clinical trials. The company is also developing other assets including TILT-234, TILT-452, TILT-321 and TILT-517.

Based in Helsinki, Finland, the company was established in 2013 as a spin-out from the University of Helsinki. It has funding from Lifeline Ventures, angel investors, Business Finland, and the European Innovation Council (EIC), and has ongoing collaborations with Biotheus, Merck & Co and the Merck-Pfizer Alliance.