On June 26, 2023 Instil Bio, Inc. ("Instil") (NASDAQ: TIL), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing tumor infiltrating lymphocyte, or TIL, therapies for the treatment of patients with cancer, reported an oral presentation at the British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy Annual Conference, demonstrating that its proprietary CoStimulatory Antigen Receptor (CoStAR) platform enhances activity of TILs against autologous tumor (Press release, Instil Bio, JUN 26, 2023, View Source [SID1234632896]).

Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing

                  Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!

The presentation highlighted CoStAR’s unique mechanism of action which results in greatly enhanced activity of TILs when activation occurs through both the native TCR and engineered CoStAR receptors. Additionally, novel data demonstrated that Instil’s FRα-CoStAR enhances activity of TILs against autologous tumors with varied expression of FRα including ovarian, renal, and non-small cell lung cancer tumors. The robust activity of NSCLC, ovarian, and renal carcinoma CoStAR-TILs against autologous tumor exceeded that of genetically unmodified melanoma TILs, as measured by secretion of IFNγ.

"The finding that CoStAR can enhance the anti-tumor reactivity of TILs in challenging tumor types such as non-small cell lung cancer even beyond that seen with melanoma TILs is compelling," said Robert Hawkins, MBBS PhD, Head of Research and Development at Instil Bio. "These preclinical data continue to support our excitement around the anticipated resumption of the clinical study of ITIL-306 in patients with advanced cancers which express FRα."