Tollys accelerates development of TLR3 agonist candidates for IV administration in I-O

French biotech Tollys, which is developing the first anti-cancer immunotherapy based on a synthetic Toll-Like Receptor 3 (TLR3) specific agonist, today announces that it has renewed and extended its research collaboration started in 2020 with an unnamed pharmaceutical company, described as “a leader in immuno-oncology.”

The company also announces the acceleration and expansion of its R&D platform in the fields of TLR3 agonist candidates for intravenous administration and antibody-drug-conjugates (ADC, or AOC for antibody-oligonucleotide-conjugates).

Based on the strong pre-clinical data collected to date with locally administered TL-532, Tollys is also accelerating and expanding its internal and collaborative R&D activities on TLR3 agonist candidates designed for intravenous administration and antibody-drug-conjugates. Tollys is thus running several parallel pre-clinical programs using different vectorization and targeting methods for its TLR3 agonist candidate(s). According to Tollys, TL-532 is the first chemically conjugable specific TLR3 agonist usable as a payload with antibodies and other carriers.

This acceleration in the development of candidates for intravenous administration is in line with the recommendations of the international board of the European oncology innovation acceleration program  MATWIN which awarded Tollys TLR3 agonist the status of ‘best-in-class innovation of the year’ in May 2021.

“Our renewed and extended pharma collaboration is further confirmation of the potential of specific TLR3 agonists. We are also very excited to advance our R&D programs for the selection of candidates for intravenous administration; we estimate that a lot more patients could benefit from treatment with TLR3 agonists, if administered intravenously rather than locally,” said Vincent Charlon, chief executive of Tollys.

About TL-532