TILT Biotherapeutics is developing immunotherapies using a new type of genetically modified viruses. The company’s leading drug candidate, TILT-123, is an oncolytic virus derived from a common cold-causing adenovirus, which, based on current research results, may be helpful in treating solid tumors. Solid tumors, which are not blood cancers, account for over 90 percent of all cancer types.
The company’s patented technology is based on an oncolytic adenovirus, whose effectiveness is due to its ability to destroy cancer cells as it replicates within them. Biopsies have shown that TILT-123 replicates in the tumor, spreads to metastases, and modifies the tumor environment to be favorable for immune cells. Additionally, it can reach the tumor even when administered intravenously.
TILT Biotherapeutics is developing its drug candidate particularly for the treatment of ovarian cancer, lung cancer, melanoma, and head and neck cancers. Lung cancer kills more people than any other cancer. Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is the sixth most common cancer worldwide, and ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death among patients with gynecological cancers. Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer. Annually, these cancers together kill hundreds of thousands of people in Europe and the United States.
The company is currently in phase Ib of clinical trials, investigating the safety and preliminary effects of the drug. TILT Biotherapeutics is conducting five phase I studies, examining intravenous and local administration of the drug and the effects of different dosage levels on its safety. So far, TILT-123 has not only proven to be safe but also shown preliminary signs of effectiveness: in some patients, tumors significantly shrank or disappeared completely. These patients’ life expectancy might have been only a few months, and the study might have been preceded by over a dozen different treatment rounds.
According to the company, TILT-123 has breakthrough potential because it could possibly offer a curative treatment for some patients whose cancer can no longer be treated by other means. For example, treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors usually fails because the tumor hides from the immune system. TILT-123, on the other hand, can reveal tumors to the immune system and attract immune cells to the site.
Based in Helsinki, Finland and Boston, USA, the Company was established in 2013 as a spin-out from University of Helsinki, leveraging on patient observations and proof of concept data gained by our scientific founders from 290 patients treated with 10 different types of oncolytic viruses. The company has received funding from Lifeline Ventures, angel investors, Business Finland, the European Innovation Council (EIC), and the US Department of Defence, alltogether some 50 meur from establishment.
Investment in 2024.