TEMPLE THERAPEUTICS B.V. WINS EUROSTARS GRANT FOR NOVEL ONCOLOGY PROGRAM
Temple Therapeutics, B.V. (the “Company” or “Temple”), a clinical stage biotechnology company engaged in the development of first-in-class therapeutics for post-surgical adhesion prevention, endometriosis, and oncology, announced today that the Company and its consortium partners will be receiving non-dilutive funding of $3 million to develop a novel therapeutic based on the discovery of a novel target found in a range of solid tumors. The funding is committed by the Eurostars program that is backed by Eureka (35 participating countries) and the European Commission. The consortium partners in the project are Inspherso(Switzerland), University of Gothenburg, The Sahlgrenska Academy, Sahlgrenska Cancer Center (Sweden), and Xenopat (Spain). The Company’s team consists of leading clinicians and researchers across Europe, UK and USA.
Key partners outside the Eurostars consortium for Temple are Associate Professor and inventor Ghassan Saed, PhD. of Wayne State University and Karmanos Cancer Center in Michigan, USA, Professor Ahuva Nissim, PhD. of Queen Mary University and William Harvey Research Institute (London, UK) and principal investigator Dr. Rebecca Kristeleit Associate Professor at UCL and Honorary Consultant Medical Oncologist UCLH (London, UK). Internally, Temple has a strong development team lead by CSO Lynne Robertson, PhD. and CMO and Medical Lead, Neil Sankar, MD. Additionally, the team is supported by former Pfizer’s VP of Early Stage Oncology, Pamela Garzone,PhD., who now is the CMO of Calibr at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, USA.
GAINING FURTHER MARKET CREDIBILITY
“Eurostar’s non dilutive grant is a validation of our team, novel science, novel target and commercial potential,” remarks Sanj Singh, CEO of Temple. “As a result, we are currently doing a $45M raise to advance our lead through to registration and bring our exciting pipeline in oncology to the clinic within the next three years. Data and team drives value and we have both. Early interactions with pharma have suggested the best positioning for this program maybe in combination therapy or potentially as a monotherapy for patients who do not respond to immunotherapy or have failed other courses of treatment. We believe the data suggests, that TTX33 may be a potent targeted therapy across a broad range of resistant solid tumors, such as ovarian.”
TTX334ag, the novel target was identified by the scientific lead, Dr. Saed, and has no known molecules in development. However, TTX334ag’s role in cell proliferation and cell survival in cancer are published and established; particularly in resistant cancers such as breast, thyroid, and colo-rectal which shows high correlation of the presence of the target. Early in-vivo data in resistant, cisplatin and chemoresistant ovarian cancers demonstrate high expression of the target and selective killing of cancer cells by over 80%. At the same time, healthy primary cells were minimally or not affected in the same studies. Developing a highly selective and targeted antibody or small molecule could prove valuable for cancer patients who otherwise have no other options.
Temple is a private clinical stage biotechnology company and is developing first in class therapeutics across three franchises: pharmacosurgical (i.e. novel approach using a drug for adhesion prevention), fibrosis (endometriosis) and oncology. The company is headquartered in Geleen/Maastricht (The Netherlands) and has research affiliations across leading academic centers across the globe. Temple’s focus on interconnectedness and power of the human biology has uncovered novel pathways and potential therapeutics to solve some of today’s largest unmet medical needs.