Shares of Werewolf Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:HOWL) reflected enthusiasm on Wall Street for the prospect, albeit early stage, of systemically delivering a masked native interleukin-2 (IL-2) cytokine to cancer patients.
By using engineered retinal pigment epithelial cells to deliver IL-2 into the tumor microenvironment, investigators at Rice University eradicated ovarian and colorectal tumors in mouse models, and elicited T-cell responses after implantation in primates.
Less than six months after closing a $55 million series A round, Asher Biotherapeutics Inc. has added another $108 million in a series B round to accelerate development of its early stage pipeline of targeted cytokine-based immunotherapies for cancer, autoimmune disease and infection.
Bright Peak Therapeutics Inc. closed a $107 million series B round to progress a pipeline of engineered cytokines, which are produced using a chemical synthesis method instead of classical recombinant protein production approaches.
Synthekine Inc., a California startup developing new medicines for cancer and autoimmune disorders, has closed an $82 million series A financing. The funds will help the company move its two lead programs into the clinic, expand its discovery pipeline and hone its cytokine engineering platforms.
