FDA clears Turnstone Biologics' IND for immunotherapy targeting HPV positive solid tumors

Turnstone Biologics today announced it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance of its Investigational New Drug Application (IND) for MG1-HPV for the treatment of patients with human papillomavirus (HPV) positive solid tumors. Additionally, Turnstone today announced that it has entered into a clinical supply agreement with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd ("Roche") under which Roche will provide atezolizumab (Tecentriq^®), its anti-PDL1 antibody, for use in combination with Turnstone's Maraba virus immunotherapy platform, MG1.

Turnstone will investigate the safety and efficacy of MG1-HPV therapy in combination with atezolizumab across a range of HPV positive tumors in a Phase I/II clinical study expected to commence in the second quarter of 2018.

"We are committed to helping patients in need of a safe and effective treatment for HPV positive cancers. Following FDA clearance of our IND, we look forward to advancing this promising combination of therapies into the clinic," said Mike Burgess, MD, Ph.D., president of Research and Development at Turnstone. "We are excited to have the support of Roche in evaluating our novel MG1 platform in combination with atezolizumab, and believe the promise of our technology to unleash the power of T cells to treat a range of solid tumors is reinforced by this relationship."

Turnstone's MG1 virus is the first immunotherapy engineered to function as both a selective tumor-destroying oncolytic virus and an immune stimulating T cell vaccine. MG1 directly attacks cancer cells and modifies the microenvironment to make tumor sites throughout the body susceptible to targeted killer T cell responses, also induced by the virus. Building off of recently published scientific data, Turnstone will investigate MG1-HPV (MG1 expressing four different HPV viral antigens) as a safe and effective treatment option for patients with advanced metastatic cervical, oropharyngeal, and other HPV positive solid tumors.