Onchilles Pharma, a private biotech company developing cancer therapeutics that leverage a novel mechanism of action, announced the presentation of new preclinical data for N17350 at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 38th Annual Meeting being held virtually and at the San Diego Convention Center from November 1-5, 2023. The data presented show the potential for N17350, a first-in-class biologic therapeutic inspired by the immunobiology of neutrophils, to become a major new treatment modality for a wide range of cancer types.
“Our lead drug candidate, N17350, shows a unique combination of potent and selective cancer cell killing and immune activation with the potential to eradicate tumors irrespective of their genetic makeup and anatomical origin,” said Lev Becker, Ph.D., Scientific Founder and Board Member of Onchilles Pharma. “These new data presented at SITC reveal the efficacy of N17350 in difficult-to-treat human xenograft models and establishes a correlation between N17350’s efficacy and elevated histone H1 levels, which are upregulated in cancer cells.”
New data presented at SITC 2023 includes evidence of N17350’s ability to regress tumor growth in a human xenograft model of patient-derived ovarian cancer cell lines as well as colon, lung, and prostate cancers. This builds upon previously presented data at AACR 2023 showing N17350 efficacy in syngeneic colon (CT26) and metastatic breast (4T1) cancer models. To understand histone H1’s role in this novel mechanism of action, Onchilles’ scientists compared histone H1 levels in cancer cells to non-cancer cells. The results showed that histone H1 levels were elevated in cancer cells and correlated with N17350’s efficacy. Additional data demonstrate that N17350 selectively kills a wide range of cancer cells including those isolated from donor tissue of ovarian cancer patients. Taken together, these findings support a potential broad therapeutic window for this innovative cancer cell-killing mechanism.
“The new preclinical data reported further highlights the broad clinical potential of our lead candidate, N17350, for a wide range of cancer types,” said Court R. Turner J.D., Co-Founder and Executive Chair of Onchilles Pharma. “We are on track with our preclinical development efforts which will support advancing N17350 to the clinic next year in skin cancers, head and neck cancer, and triple-negative breast cancer, where treatment options are extremely limited.”
About N17350 and Its Novel Mechanism of Action
First described in research published in Cell from the lab of Onchilles’ Co-Founder Lev Becker, human neutrophils release catalytically active neutrophil elastase (called ELANE), which selectively and potently kills cancer cells independent of their genetics and anatomical origin, mobilizes adaptive immunity, and avoids resistance mechanisms. The team at Onchilles translated this ground-breaking discovery into a proprietary set of molecules, including N17350, with the potential to treat a wide variety of tumor types with an optimal efficacy and safety profile.
About Onchilles Pharma
Onchilles Pharma is a global drug discovery and development company that leverages novel innate immuno-biology to develop the next generation of pan-cancer therapies. These first-in-class therapeutics exploit a novel fundamental mechanism of action to treat cancer independent of its genetic background or anatomical origin. The company is developing a pipeline of first-in-class biologic drug candidates and plans to start first-in-human clinical trials for its first program, N17350, in 2024 in skin cancers, head and neck cancer and triple negative breast cancer. For more info, visit www.onchillespharma.com.
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Contacts
Company Contact: Peter Haberz, Ph.D., Vice President, Corporate Development, info@onchillespharma.com
Media Contact: Jessica Yingling, Ph.D., Little Dog Communications Inc., jessica@litldog.com, +1.858.344.8091
