XIlio Therapeutics has implemented cost-cutting measures which include a 21% workforce reduction and the termination of investments for developing one of its assets, XTX202, as a monotherapy.

Xilio expects to incur one-time cost of approximately $1m for reducing its workforce by 15 employees. The company has reported $44.7m in cash reserves, which are expected to fund the company’s activities into Q2 2025. The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company’s market cap currently stands at $42.1m.

Following the recent round of layoffs, Xilio joins a list of pharmaceutical companies including Atreca, Candel Therapeutics, Kinnate Bio, and NexImmune that have fired workers to funnel more money into their clinical development pipelines in the last few months.

The company plans to not investigate XTX202, a tumour-activated beta-gamma biased interleukin (IL)-2, as a monotherapy and instead will explore partnerships to develop the therapy as a combination treatment. The therapy was evaluated in an open label Phase I/II trial (NCT05052268) in 19 patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and 20 patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma. At nine weeks, the therapy was well tolerated and had a 76% and 50% disease control rate in 7 RCC and 9 melanoma patients, respectively.

Following the restructuring, Xilio plans to focus its resources on the two Phase I candidates — XTX101 and XTX301. Last week, the company licenced XTX301 to Gilead Sciences for upfront cash and equity payments totalling $43.5m. XTX301 is being evaluated in an open label Phase I trial (NCT05052268) in patients with advanced solid tumours, with pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data from the trial expected in Q4 this year.

XTX101 is a fragmented crystallisable (Fc)-enhanced, anti-CTLA-4 antibody that depletes regulatory T cells when activated in the tumour microenvironment. The therapy is being evaluated as a monotherapy and in combination with Roche’s PD-L1 inhibitor Tecentriq (atezolizumab) in an open-label Phase I/II trial (NCT04896697). The trial is co-funded by Roche. For the Phase II portion of the study, the company plans to investigate the XTX101/Tecentriq combination in 40 patients with microsatellite stable colorectal cancer. The Phase II will be initiated in Q3 2024, with initial data from half of the participants expected in Q4 2024.

Another candidate in Xilio’s pipeline is a PD-1 and IL-2 bispecific antibody, XTX501, currently in preclinical development. Immuno-oncology is a growing area of focus, with over 400 therapies currently in development, according to GlobalData analysis.

https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/news/xilio-fires-21-of-its-workforce-and-reprioritises-pipeline/?cf-view