Headed up by Scott Clarke, an ex-Roche exec who served as its global head of oncology partnering for Asia and emerging markets, the cancer immunotherapy company is working on several early assets, including TTX-030, a CD39-targeting antibody that last year attracted AbbVie’s interest and, according to preclinical data, seems to block an immune-inhibiting pathway in the tumor microenvironment.
AbbVie, in fact, paid $105 million upfront as well as making an undisclosed equity investment in Tizona to secure exclusive rights to anti-CD39 antibody TTX-030, which the two companies say is a first-in-class immuno-oncology drug that could restore and bolster immune responses against cancer cells.
Author: Canan Schuman, PharmD/PhD
Canan Schumann is Chief Editor for Axxiem and for Axxiem's blog "BiotechOntheWeb". When not writing for Axxiem, Canan works as a Clinical Research Scientist II at the Research and Development Department at Molecular Testing Labs, developing endpoint assays for the detection of infectious disease and cancer. Canan currently resides in Portland, Oregon, where he received his Honors Bachelor of Science (HBS), Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD.), and his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Biopharmaceutics at Oregon State University.