Werewolf Therapeutics Announces Initiation of Patient Dosing in Phase 1 Study of WTX-330
IL-12 has historically been an extremely attractive immuno-oncology mechanism, having the ability to regulate antitumor immunity through numerous innate and adaptive immune pathways, but to-date has been undruggable due to serious toxicities when administered systemically. WTX-330 is specifically designed to maximize clinical benefit and minimize the severe toxicities that have been observed with recombinant IL-12 therapy by including high affinity blockade of IL-12 IL-12R interaction in systemic circulation and non-tumor tissues, half-life extension for optimal tumor exposure and proprietary tumor-selective protease activation. In preclinical studies, WTX-330 exhibited excellent anti-tumor activity and a favorable pharmacokinetic and tolerability profile. WTX-330 was designed to mediate robust anti-tumor activity through stimulation of innate and adaptive antitumor immune responses, including dendritic cell maturation and cross-presentation, Th1 differentiation and amplification of antitumor T effector cell responses.