Turnstone Biologics Corp Announces Proposed IPO

Turnstone Biologics Corp (TSBX) has filed for a proposed IPO.

The company describes itself as: “We are a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing new medicines to treat and cure patients with solid tumors. Approved immunotherapies represent a significant advancement in the treatment of solid tumors, but many patients either do not respond or experience relapsed disease following an initial response. We believe the most significant challenge to creating curative immunotherapies in these patients is the low numbers of T cells that can recognize and attack the tumor, which we refer to as tumor-reactive T cells. To address this problem, we are pioneering a differentiated approach to tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, or TILs, a clinically validated technology for treating solid tumors. We are developing next generation TIL therapies by selecting the most potent (meaning able to mediate an anti-tumor response) and tumor-reactive T cells, which we refer to as Selected TILs. Unlike other approaches that rely on standard “bulk TILs” that have demonstrated benefit only in limited tumor types, our Selected TILs are designed to extend the clinical benefit of TILs across the majority of solid tumors. We define clinical benefit or clinically meaningful as the improvement in symptoms, quality of life and/or survival of the patient. We have initiated two Phase 1 clinical trials for TIDAL-01, including a multi-site trial for the treatment of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and uveal melanoma, and an investigator sponsored trial with H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Inc., or Moffitt, in both cutaneous and non-cutaneous melanomas. Under the investigator sponsored trial, Moffitt is responsible for regulatory interactions, study conduct and manufacture of TIDAL-01 at the Moffitt Cancer Cell Therapy Facility. Any data disclosures will be made in collaboration with us and any improvements to the TIDAL-01 manufacturing process are solely at our discretion. We intend to provide an initial clinical update across these two trials in mid-2024. We are also actively advancing our preclinical pipeline programs including TIDAL-02, our next Selected TIL program, and our TIDAL-01 viral immunotherapy combination program. “

BofA Securities, SVB Securities and Piper Sandler will serve as underwriters.