Asher Biotherapeutics

Join us in celebrating with Irene, Danielle, Terrence, and Mike as they each celebrate their five year anniversary at Asher. Thank you for your dedication to our mission to restore hope, health, and happiness in the lives of patients.   #LightUpWhatMatters #Team #Anniversary

Congratulations to our academic co-founder Bob Schreiber and his team on their recent publication in Nature Magazine. The article highlights a subset of CD4 T cells that suppress responses to immunotherapies and demonstrates that a cis-targeted CD8-IL2 can help to overcome this inhibition.  #cancer #immunotherapy https://lnkd.in/ejpDHM42

We are excited to announce that Ian Clark, a member of our Board of Directors since 2022 has been confirmed as Board Chair. Ian has dedicated his career to developing novel medicines and this new role reflects the progress we have made in advancing our first product candidate, AB248 an Interleukin-2 cis-targeted to CD8 effector T cells, into Phase 1b clinical development in patients with relapsed, refractory solid tumors. #LightUpWhatMatters

Excited to see our recent publication highlighted by #ACIR #LightUpWhatMatters

We’re excited to announce today the closing of our Series C financing, paving the way for us to deliver a new class of cis-targeted cancer immunotherapies with the potential to solve the most significant and challenging problems with immunotherapies: selectivity. The proceeds from the $55 million financing enable us to advance our clinical trials for our lead cis-targeted drug candidate, AB248 a novel CD8+ T cell selective IL-2 immunotherapy, into Phase 1b expansion and combination cohorts. Our team at Asher Bio is enthusiastic about further progress with AB248. Likewise, the investors in our Series C recognize the potential for AB248 to make an important impact in cancer care. The financing was led by @RA Capital and included AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb, two companies with deep expertise in #oncology and #cytokines. These investors know the immunotherapy field well. In some cases they have previously invested in companies with competitor programs and or have hands-on experience with cytokine development.  They share our vision for how cis-targeting can address a decades-old challenge of precision immune cell targeting. We are on the path to making this possible with AB248, which is being studied in a clinical trial as a monotherapy and in combination with a PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor. Early clinical data has demonstrated its highly differentiated pharmacodynamic profile and potential to overcome liabilities of other IL-2 immunotherapies: > Unprecedented selectivity of desired immune cells: AB248 has shown potent and selective CD8+ T cell activation without substantial changes to immunosuppressive Treg and NK cell numbers. > Anti-tumor activity has been shown in the initial results from the study. > AB248’s well-tolerated safety profile to date has demonstrated the potential to reduce the toxicities that severely limit the use of IL-2 in cancer care. With this financing, we are powering ahead with AB248 to show the potential for cis-targeting to dramatically improve immunotherapies for cancer patients. 

Be sure to check out our publications in Cancer Discovery that detail the design of AB248 and reviews preclinical data supporting its development as a potentially best-in-class interleukin-2 (IL-2) therapy. #Cancer #Discovery #LightUpWhatMatters

Today we honor the brilliant minds shaping the future of science and technology. We want to specifically acknowledge the incredible contributions of the women at Asher breaking barriers and inspiring innovation, your impact is undeniable. #February11th #STEM #WomenandGirlsinScience #InspiringInnovation

We’re excited to share this Science Translational Medicine article from our collaborator, Dr. Matteo Iannacone, which presents further validation of our cis-targeting platform and CD8-targeted IL-2 program. #LightUpWhatMatters

Our focus on and dedication to inspired innovation makes Asher Bio an amazing place to work.  Just ask Christopher DelNagro! Want to feel inspired? Visit https://lnkd.in/dV42pgR #LightUpWhatMatters #Team #Innovation

Clinical use of IL-21 has been limited due to toxicities and pleiotropic effects. We designed AB821 to activate only the immune cells driving the anti-tumor response, potentially maximizing the efficacy of IL-21 and limiting off-target activity. #SITC23 #LightUpWhatMatters