Sonnet BioTherapeutics Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SONN) has announced the selection of a candidate following the completion of comparative studies in the animal melanoma model. The candidate is the company’s second bispecific Interleukin 12 combined with the Sonnet’s Fully Human Albumin Binding platform. Melanoma and kidney malignancies will be the target indications for SON-1410.
Sonnet recently had $30 million financing
CEO Pankaj Mohan said, “Following our recently completed $30 million financing, we are excited to have identified this latest bispecific candidate, which is scheduled to enter the next stages of its development during the fourth quarter of 2021, with the objective of filing an IND in the second half of 2022. Our Scientific Advisory Board is very encouraged by these latest data and by the opportunity to further expand our work with IL-18 and IL-12, as we continue the buildout of our immuno-oncology pipeline.”
Sonnet’s Scientific Advisory Board comprises top oncology experts from MD Anderson Cancer Center, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School/Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Fox Chase Cancer Center, and Moffitt Cancer Center Tampa, Florida, examined the data.
Chief scientific officer John Cini said, “I am excited about IL18-FHAB-IL12 becoming our second bispecific candidate that utilizes IL-12. There appears to be synergy between these interleukins, as IL-18 upregulates the IL-12 receptor and IL-12 upregulates the IL-18 receptor. IL-18 also appears to increase chemokines CXCL9 and CXCL10. Thus, SON-1410 has the potential to make a cold tumor immunologically hot..”
SON-1410 has the potential of harnessing IL-18
Richard Kenney, the company’s Chief Medical Officer, said, “The decision to move the SON-1410 construct forward is an important one for Sonnet, as we continue our search for novel, bispecific combinations with profound anticancer properties. IL-18 is a member of the IL-1 superfamily of cytokines that activates Th1 cells when combined with IL-12, as well as stimulating natural killer (NK) cells. The mouse data we generated demonstrate that SON-1410 represents a molecule that may harness IL-18 as a potentially effective therapeutic tool for oncologists.”
