{"id":45015,"date":"2023-07-21T16:03:20","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T20:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=45015"},"modified":"2023-07-21T16:04:56","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T20:04:56","slug":"cancer-immunotherapy-biotech-issues-80m-ipo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=45015","title":{"rendered":"Cancer Immunotherapy Biotech Issues $80M IPO"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(A. Kotok)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

21 July 2023. A biotechnology company designing immunotherapies for solid tumor cancers with a patient’s white blood cells is raising $80 million in its initial public offering or IPO. Turnstone Biologics Corp.<\/a>, an eight year-old enterprise in San Diego, trades its shares on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol TSBX.<\/p>\n

Turnstone Bio is a developer of solid tumor cancer treatments<\/a> that it says makes up for shortcomings in conventional immunotherapies, notably for some patients with limited numbers of T-cell lymphocytes, white blood cells in the immune system, that recognize and attack tumors. The company says its technology<\/a> screens and identifies a T-cell lymphocytes from a patient’s tumor that attack cancer cells after penetrating the tumor’s protective microenvironment.<\/p>\n

Turnstone says it then isolates and expands the number of potent, targeted tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes<\/a> or TILs in the lab, removing less effective T-cells to boost their potency, and re-infuses the cells back into the patient. An enhancement in that process, now in preclinical stages says the company, pre-treats tumors with engineered viruses that disrupt tumor cells and improve the collection of tumor-attacking T-cells. Following re-infusion of TILs, says Turnstone, engineered viruses reprogram the tumor microenvironment, and provide an easier target for TILs to attack cancer cells.<\/p>\n

In early-stage clinical trials<\/h4>\n

In Oct. 2022, Turnstone Bio’s lead product code-named Tidal-1 received FDA clearance<\/a> to begin early-stage clinical trials of TILs, testing the treatments in patients with breast and colorectal cancer, and uveal melanoma, a rare cancer affecting the dark pigment in eyes. A separate early-stage trial<\/a> is underway with Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida in patients with cutaneous melanoma, the more common form of aggressive skin cancer, and melanoma occurring in other organs.<\/p>\n

Turnstone Biologics was first formed in 2015, spun-off from cancer research labs at universities in Canada. As reported by Science & Enterprise<\/a> in Dec. 2019, Turnstone Bio licensed its previous cancer immunotherapy technology to Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Japan. In Jan. 2021, the company acquired Myst Therapeutics<\/a> and its TIL technology that now makes up Turnstone’s pipeline. According to Crunchbase<\/a>, the company raised $132.7 million in four venture rounds since its founding.<\/p>\n

For its IPO, Turnstone Bio issued some 6.7 million shares on the Nasdaq, priced at $12.00, but opening this morning at $11.40. At the closing bell today, the company’s shares<\/a> were at $11.00, a decline of 8.3 percent from the IPO price.<\/p>\n

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