The UK biotech Grey Wolf Therapeutics has raised €11.4M (£10M) to fuel the development of a cancer therapy that flushes tumor cells out of hiding from the immune system.
Many approved cancer immunotherapies, such as CAR-T cell therapy and checkpoint inhibitors, have made a big difference for many people with cancer. However, a common problem with such therapies is that many types of cancer cells can simply evade detection by hiding surface antigens that betray their cancerous nature.
“The recent breakthroughs in immunotherapy have fundamentally changed the treatment landscape in oncology,” stated Peter Joyce, CEO of Grey Wolf Therapeutics. “However, the fact remains that current approaches only target the minority of tumors that are visible to the immune system, whilst the vast majority of cancers do not respond.”
To address this issue, Grey Wolf is developing small molecule drugs that force the tumor cells to express more cancer antigens on their surface, exposing them to destruction by the immune system.
This therapy could be used in combination with other cancer immunotherapies to boost their efficacy, much like it’s currently done with checkpoint inhibitors, which have become the norm for cancer combo therapies.
Founded in 2017, Grey Wolf aims to use this funding round to push its cancer therapy through to clinical trials in humans within the next three years.
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