TARLATAMAB-DLLE

Pfizer and Amgen’s corporate venture arms are jumping into T cell engagers by investing in Cartography Biosciences’ $67 million Series B. The Bay Area startup, which is developing bispecific and multispecific antibodies for cancer patients, said Thursday it plans to begin its first clinical trial early next year. It is now supported by both drugmakers, LG Corp, Finchley Healthcare Ventures, the Global BioAccess Fund and Lotte Holdings, along with existing backers such as a16z and 8VC. The fledgling biotech unveiled a $57 million Series A in 2022. At that time, Cartography co-founder and CEO Kevin Parker told Endpoints News the round would move the company closer to the clinic, though it would need a Series B to get the job done. Parker has now delivered on that promise. Cartography is planning to soon begin a Phase 1 trial testing a T cell engager (TCE) in patients with colorectal cancer in the US. The experimental medicine, which is directed at a tumor-specific antigen known as LY6G6D, is named CBI-1214. “TCEs have shown promise in other solid tumors, prostate cancer, non-small cell lung cancer,” Parker said in an interview, “and there’s been some proof points in colorectal. But no big breakthrough there, so we felt the modality was primed to be effective.” Cartography hopes to use the Series B to get to a Phase 1 readout. The biotech will also keep working on its discovery pipeline, “getting those to go/no-go decisions, getting some data points to make the decision [whether] to advance it,” Parker said. The preclinical and discovery programs include other solid tumor-directed TCEs and modalities. The new financing further amplifies the race to create new T cell engagers. Amgen has pioneered development of T cell engagers, and two of those therapies are approved: Imdelltra in 2024, and Blincyto in 2014. Cartography appears to be following in Amgen’s footsteps by bringing on Dirk Nagorsen as chief medical officer. The Amgen veteran held the same post at cell therapy startup Affini-T Therapeutics . Many other drugmakers are also investing in TCE development, including Crossbow Therapeutics, which is raising an up to $80 million Series B, according to an SEC filing this week. Merck and GSK have made recent acquisitions of TCE developers. While Cartography and Crossbow are exploring the potential of TCEs in cancer and blood disorders, other startups such as Candid Therapeutics are trying to prove whether the en vogue approach can have the same disease-fighting effects in autoimmune conditions. “We have to pick our battles, so right now we’re focused on oncology, but I think the platform can apply there,” Parker said. It’s “the same concept of finding really clean, specific targets and building good molecules against it.” The biotech’s ATLAS platform helps find single targets and its SUMMIT tool scours multi-antigen target combinations. Those drug discovery instruments feed off data on hundreds of thousands of cell states in the healthy body and insights from patient tumor cells, the company said. The goal is to avoid toxicities that come with immunotherapies, Parker previously said. The team of nearly 50 employees is also making progress in its work helping Gilead find new targets for breast and lung cancer, Parker said. The duo teamed up last year for $20 million upfront. Eventually, Parker envisions Cartography stepping on the gas in antibody-drug conjugates “down the road.”