Boehringer Ingelheim signs option to acquire Trutino Biosciences

Family-owned German pharma major Boehringer Ingelheim late yesterday announced the signing of an option to acquire Trutino Biosciences, a privately-held San Diego-based biotech company.

Trutino Biosciences is a pre-clinical stage biotech company dedicated to the discovery and development of next-generation cytokine therapies to treat immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases. Boehringer Ingelheim is dedicated to a two-pronged research strategy to fight cancers: through cancer cell-directed and immune cell-targeting compounds. The ongoing research partnership between Boehringer and Trutino is part of an overarching effort to mobilize a patient’s immune system to fight cancer.

“Boehringer Ingelheim is excited to extend our partnership with Dr Kim and his outstanding team at Trutino Biosciences. Our existing collaboration has made rapid and impressive progress in a short time frame, and we expect this field to have potential combination benefits with our existing immune-targeting assets,” said Dr Clive Wood, corporate senior vice president and global head of discovery research, Boehringer Ingelheim. “The selective activation of specific cytokines localized in the tumor microenvironment holds enormous promise and has the potential to be a key element in fully harnessing the power of the immune system to fight cancer,” he noted.