South San Francisco, Calif., October 5, 2022 – Asher Biotherapeutics, Inc. (Asher Bio), a biotechnology company focused on developing therapies to precisely engage specific immune cells to fight cancer, chronic viral infections and autoimmune disorders, today announced that it will present preclinical data for two of its cis-targeted immunotherapies, AB248 and AB821, at the Society for Immunotherapy in Cancer (SITC) 37th Annual Meeting, being held in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 8-12, 2022.
AB248, Asher Bio’s lead cis-targeted immunotherapy, is a novel CD8-targeted IL-2 mutein designed to selectively activate interleukein-2 (IL-2) signaling on CD8+ T cells over natural killer cells and regulatory T (Treg) cells. Asher Bio plans to investigate the use of AB248 in multiple solid tumor indications as monotherapy and in combination with PD(L)-1 checkpoint inhibitors and expects to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial in the fourth quarter of 2022.
AB821 is a CD8-targeted interleukin 21 (IL-21), designed to selectively activate CD8+ T cells with an attenuated version of IL-21. Asher Bio expects to file an investigational new drug application for AB821 in the second half of 2023.
Details of the poster presentations are as follows:
Title: CD8+ T cell selectivity of AB248 is essential for optimal anti-tumor activity and safety in nonclinical models
Title: AB821 is a CD8+ T cell selective IL-21 with enhanced bioavailability that mediates potent anti-tumor activity, cytotoxicity, and expansion of memory CD8+ T cells
Both abstracts will become available online on the SITC conference website beginning at 8:00 a.m. ET on Monday, November 7, 2022.
About Asher Bio
Asher Bio is a biotechnology company focused on developing therapies to precisely engage specific immune cells to fight cancer, chronic viral infections and autoimmune disorders. We utilize our proprietary cis-targeting platform to develop therapies engineered to overcome limitations of other immune-based treatments by selectively activating specific immune cell types with validated disease fighting functionality. Our candidates feature an antibody connected to a modified immunomodulatory protein, such as a cytokine. Our candidate design is intended to enable our candidates to selectively activate the desired immune cells and not other cells that contribute to toxicity or immune suppression. Asher Bio was founded by Ivana Djuretic and Andy Yeung with support from Third Rock Ventures and is located in South San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.asherbio.com and follow us on Twitter @AsherBio and on LinkedIn.
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