Flagship Cancer Startup Torque Raises $25M, for Targeted Cell Therapy
Cambridge, Massachusetts -based Torque Therapeutics, an immuno-oncology company developing Deep Primed cell therapies that direct and evoke immune responses in the tumor microenvironment, has now announced the launch of its technology platform to create a new class of immune cell therapeutics to treat cancer, financed with $25 million in Series A capital by Flagship Pioneering.
The Torque platform makes it possible to anchor powerful stimulatory cytokines, antibodies, and small molecules directly to immune cells to direct their actions and increase their efficacy and durability in the “hostile” tumor microenvironment, without systemic exposure.
Torque’s approach is based on 10 years of research on how to affix to T cells drugs that direct and boost the T cells’ activity against cancer. Today, the Cambridge, MA, biotech is coming out of stealth with $25 million in financing. The Series A funding comes from venture capital firm Flagship Pioneering, Torque’s sole institutional investor. The company’s lead drug candidate, Deep IL-15, is expected to begin clinical trials in 2018 in yet-to-be-determined cancer.
“The tumor microenvironment shuts down immune cells, protecting tumors from their attack,” said Doug Cole, MD, Lead Director of Torque and Managing Partner of Flagship Pioneering
. “Torque is engineering immune cells with the tools to fight back to overcome this immunosuppression. This directed, the precisely controlled approach goes far beyond what can be achieved using either gene editing or genetic engineering alone.”“By arming immune cells to function robustly deep in the tumor microenvironment, this approach has the potential to create a new class of cellular immunotherapeutics, substantially expanding the efficacy of conventional cell-based methods,” said Darrell Irvine, PhD, co-founder of Torque, Professor of Materials Science & Engineering and Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. “Torque’s approach has the potential to significantly expand the proportion of patients that respond to cellular immunotherapy and to take us closer to curing cancer, rather than just slowing its progression.”
Torque still has to test its approach in humans, of course. Henderson says the $25 million in funding will support the work needed to start clinical trials for Torque’s lead drug. The company’s three other drug programs will need additional financing before the company can begin testing them in humans.
