Actym Therapeutics Announces Lead Candidate for Clinical Development, Presentation at SITC

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Nov 12, 2021, 09:00 ET

BERKELEY, Calif., Nov. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Actym Therapeutics today announced that ACTM-838 has been selected as a lead clinical development candidate for the treatment of solid tumors. ACTM-838 is based on the company's immunotherapy platform called STACT (S. Typhimurium-Attenuated Cancer Therapy), which delivers multiplexed immuno-modulatory payloads directly to tumor-resident immune cells. ACTM-838 is a STACT strain that encodes engineered IL-15 (IL-15plex) and STING (eSTING). In preclinical studies, the IL-15plex + eSTING payload combination delivered by STACT resulted in primary human and mouse M2 macrophage production of type I interferon, and repolarization into a novel hybrid M1/M2 phenotype capable of tumor cell phagocytosis and priming of CD8⁺ T-cells. Complete tumor responses were observed in metastatic, checkpoint refractory tumors (IV dosing), that were entirely dependent on CD8⁺ T-cells. In primates, the therapy was well tolerated, rapidly cleared, and elicited minimal cytokine responses after IV dosing.

"The nomination of a lead candidate is a tremendous accomplishment for our company, and we're excited about the possibility of bringing a desperately needed treatment option to cancer patients," said Christopher Thanos, Ph.D., Cofounder and Chief Executive Officer of Actym Therapeutics.

Actym's data will be presented on Friday, November 12, 2021, at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. (Presentation #853, Novel Single Agent Immunotherapies).

About Actym
Actym Therapeutics, based in Berkeley, CA, is a privately-held biotechnology company focused on discovery and development of novel immuno-oncology therapies to treat cancer. The company has developed an attenuated, microbial-based, immunotherapeutic technology platform called STACT (S. Typhimurium-Attenuated Cancer Therapy). In preclinical studies, STACT specifically enriches in many types of solid tumors and not in healthy tissue. Once there, STACT delivers multiplexed immuno-modulatory payloads directly to tumor-resident immune cells. Many of these payload targets are of significant interest to the biopharmaceutical community but are intractable using conventional approaches due to systemic toxicities after intravenous dosing. Furthermore, STACT has been engineered to deliver payload combinations, which facilitates engagement of multiple biological pathways from a single therapy. Actym was founded in 2017 by Dr. Christopher Thanos, Dr. Laura Hix Glickman, and Dr. Amit Kumar. In April of 2020, Actym raised $34 million in a Series A financing, co-led by Boehringer-Ingelheim Venture Fund and Panacea Venture Healthcare, with participation from Illumina Ventures, Korea Investment Partners, and JLO Ventures.

Media Contact:
Valerie Enes
Seismic Media Relations
[email protected]

Corporate Contact:
Sheriese Rush, MBA
Head of Operations, Actym Therapeutics, Inc.
[email protected]

SOURCE Actym Therapeutics Inc.