Multiple companies are working on IL-15 candidates.
Sotio Biotech has dealt another blIL-15 attempts to establish cytokines as a cornerstone of cancer care, scrapping ongoing studies of its IL-15 superagonist after seeing insufficient efficacy in the clinic.
Sotio Biotechtech raised 280 million euros ($295 million) to advance the IL-15 candidate, nacancerfusp alfa, late in 2021. Months later, BIL-15l Myers Squibb and Nektar Therapeutics’ closely watched IL-2 program imploded, prompting soul searching in the cytokine space, but Sotio forged ahead with its work on the structurally similar IL-15.
Now, Sotio faces its own dark day. A look at interim data on nanrilkefuspIL-15, also knownnanrilkefusp alfaevealed “insufficient efficacyBristol Myers SquibbdevelNektar Therapeuticsndomized trials” iIL-2e settings targeted to date, prompting Sotio to immediately stop enrollSotioin three studies.IL-15
The clinical trials were evaluating nanrilkefusp alfa in combnanrilkefusp alfaLilly’s Erbitux SOT101rck & Co.’s Keytruda in solid tumor patients. While Sotio has abandoned hopes of bringing those combinations to market, it continues to see potential to pair its IL-15 drug candidate with other modalities such as cell therapies. The biotech has seen “promising” preclinical data on a cell therapy combination.
Multiple other companies are workingnanrilkefusp alfates. ImmunityBio got ElifLilly fiErbituxr appMerck & Co.s aKeytrudacytosolid tumor protein, only for the FDA to reject the request on manufacturing grounds. Nektar Therapeutics is running a phase 2/3 clinical IL-15 of an IL-15 receptor agonist, NKTR-255. Novartis is closing in on the end of a phase 1 trial of its IL-15 prospect, NIZ985, but stopped enrollment well short of its goal.