No easy ride for Turnstone

Problems at yet another biotech specialising in TIL therapies, in this case Turnstone Biologics, won’t boost enthusiasm for this type of approach. Turnstone on Friday said it would axe 60% of its workforce and curtail preclinical work in an effort to focus on its lead phase 1 TIL (tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte) project, TIDAL-01. The group floated on Nasdaq just over a year ago, raising $80m for a pipeline of TIL assets, but has evidently found it impossible to raise more cash as its valuation dwindled to barely $10m. At least TILs remain Turnstone’s key focus; the same can’t be said for Achilles, which last month discontinued TIL trials to focus on other cell therapies, or Instil Bio, which in August switched from TILs – the focus of its 2021 IPO – to a newly licensed bispecific antibody. The one notable TIL success has been Iovance’s Amtagvi, which did secure US approval; however, that came after years of delays, and Iovance is having to launch solo. There have been other disappointments, but plenty of clinical work on TILs continues, much of it in China.

Selected work on tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs)

Source: OncologyPipeline.