WALTHAM, Mass. - Morphic Therapeutic (Nasdaq: MORF), a biotechnology company developing a new generation of oral integrin therapies for the treatment of serious chronic diseases, announced the presentation of new data from its v 8 integrin inhibition program at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2021 Annual Meeting. These new preclinical data, evaluating a monoclonal antibody targeting v 8, reinforce and build upon previous findings that v 8 inhibition can drive potent anti-tumor responses in tumor models refractory to current treatment modalities. V 8 is known to mediate the activation of tumor growth factor beta (TGF?1/3). Morphic is developing oral small molecule inhibitors of the v 8 integrin which is expressed on cell types central to immune response and is a major contributor to tolerance and suppression of anti-tumor immunity.

'These SITC data show that Morphic's v 8 inhibitors, in combination with radioimmunotherapy, significantly enhance efficacy in a syngeneic mouse preclinical model of advanced colon cancer that was non-responsive to radioimmunotherapy,' commented Bruce Rogers. PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Morphic. 'These results expand our understanding of the potential treatment modalities where addition of v 8 inhibition may be beneficial in tumors refractory to standard immunotherapy approaches.'

The research presented at SITC demonstrates that Morphic's v 8 inhibitor, in combination with radioimmunotherapy (RIT), drove tumor response in a syngeneic mouse model refractory to radiotherapy and immune checkpoint blockade alone and in combination. In these data, the addition of v 8 inhibitors to RIT markedly increased tumor regression (P=0.0067) and survival (P

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