CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Torque, an
immuno-oncology company developing Deep Primed™ cell therapies that
direct and evoke immune responses in the tumor microenvironment,
today 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 activity and
increase their efficacy and durability in the "hostile" tumor
microenvironment, without systemic exposure.
The company also announced the appointment of Bart Henderson as Chief Executive Officer. Mr.
Henderson is a co-founder of Torque who most recently was founder
and President of Rhythm (Nasdaq: RYTM), which he established to
develop two peptide therapeutics focused on intractable metabolic
disorders. The first was acquired by Allergan in 2016 and the
second is in Phase 3 clinical trials with FDA Breakthrough Therapy
Designation for the treatment of rare genetic disorders of obesity.
Prior to that, Mr. Henderson was a founding employee of Radius,
where he built the product pipeline through a series of product
acquisitions.
"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, 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 also announced the appointment of Ulrik Nielsen, PhD as President and Founder
Chairman of the Board. Dr. Nielsen is a co-founder of Torque and a
leading expert in immunology drug discovery and development. Since
Torque's founding in 2015, he led development of the company's
platform and the creation of its initial product candidates. Dr.
Nielsen was previously a founder and Chief Scientific Officer of
Merrimack (Nasdaq: MACK), where he remains on the board of
directors, and he served as Chief Executive Officer of Silver Creek
Pharmaceuticals, a majority-owned subsidiary of Merrimack.
Torque has assembled a world-class management team, board of
directors, and scientific advisory board for developing
breakthrough therapies, with extensive expertise in cell biology,
immunology, biomaterials engineering, protein engineering,
cell/biologics development, and drug delivery. In addition to Mr.
Henderson and Dr. Nielsen, the company's executive leadership
includes Torque co-founder Thomas Lars
Andresen, PhD as Head of Discovery. Dr. Andresen is an
expert in biomaterial engineering and drug delivery and a Professor
and group leader of the Colloids and Biological Interfaces group at
DTU Nanotech who previously served as head of the DTU Center for
Nanomedicine and Theranostics. Becker Hewes, MD serves as Torque's
Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Hewes' expertise in clinical and
preclinical development of immuno-oncology compounds includes early
clinical development of ribociclib in breast cancer. Prior to
joining Torque, he was Executive Medical Director at Novartis
Institute for Biomedical Research, and he previously held positions
in early oncology clinical development at Genzyme and
AstraZeneca.
About Deep-Primed™ Immune Cell Therapeutics
Torque's
Deep-Priming platform is based on 10 years of research and
development focused on taking very potent immunomodulatory
drugs—cytokines, antibodies, and small molecules—that have the
ability to activate and protect T cells from the hostile tumor
microenvironment. Administering these immunomodulators systemically
to a patient can cause lethal toxicity by activating immune cells
throughout the body. Deep-Primed™ therapeutics are designed to
activate only the T cells that are targeting the tumor. This is
achieved by anchoring the immunomodulators to the surface of the
immune cell to act locally, in the microenvironment, overcoming the
barriers to effective, durable, and safe cancer immunotherapy.
Torque is applying the Deep-Priming™ platform across all immune
cell therapeutic classes: CAR T cells, TCR therapeutics, NK cells,
and Tumor-Associated Antigen (TAA)-specific T cells. In hematologic
cancers, this technology has the potential to improve on the
initial success of CAR T therapeutics, enabling more durable
responses and with less toxicity. For solid tumors, Deep-Priming
has the potential to enable efficacy against cancers that are
protected by hostile microenvironments not readily addressable with
the first generation of immune cell therapies.
About Torque (www.torquetx.com)
Torque is an immuno-oncology company developing Deep Primed™ cell
therapies that direct and evoke immune responses in the tumor
microenvironment. Torque's lead product candidate is Deep IL-15,
which is in pre-IND development for hematologic and solid tumors.
The company is based in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
About Flagship Pioneering
Flagship Pioneering
conceives, creates, resources and develops first-in-category life
sciences companies. Its institutional innovation foundry, Flagship
VentureLabs®, is where Flagship's team of scientific entrepreneurs
systematically evolves enterprising ideas into new fields or
previously undiscovered areas of science into real-world inventions
and ventures. Since its launch in 2000, the firm has applied its
hypothesis-driven innovation process to originate and foster nearly
100 scientific ventures, resulting in over $20 billion in aggregate value, 500+ issued
patents and more than 45 clinical trials for novel therapeutic
agents.
Since inception, Flagship has capitalized its growing portfolio
with over $1 billion coming from
$1.75 billion of aggregate investor
capital committed across five funds. The firm's portfolio includes
pioneering ventures that are transforming human health and
sustainability, including: Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT), Seres
Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB) and Syros Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:
SYRS), as well as private companies, including Axcella Health,
Indigo Agriculture, Moderna Therapeutics and Rubius Therapeutics.
Flagship has ongoing corporate innovation alliances with several
market leaders, including: AstraZeneca, the Crop Science Division
of Bayer and Nestlé Health Science. To learn more about Flagship
Pioneering, please visit our website:
www.FlagshipPioneering.com.
Contact:
Mary
Moynihan
M2Friend Biocommunications
802-951-9600
mary@m2friend.com
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