Sotio Biotech, a clinical stage immuno-oncology company owned by PPF Group, has secured €280 million ($317.7 million) of funding to significantly expand and advance its clinical pipeline, including its lead asset SOT101, an IL-15 superagonist, and three new clinical programs until end of 2023.
 
The funding will be used to advance SOT101 through two multi-indication phase 2 clinical trials: The phase 2 AURELIO-03 study tests SOT101 as monotherapy in patients with melanoma, squamous skin carcinoma and kidney cancer, and a planned phase 2 AURELIO-04 study will evaluate the combination of SOT101 with a checkpoint inhibitor.
 
This funding will also be used to advance three novel programs through phase 1: BOXR1030 is the company’s lead CAR-T program for the treatment of various solid tumors expressing GPC3. It’s based on the proprietary BOXR platform that aims to enhance the fitness of T cells in the hostile tumor microenvironment. The study is scheduled to start early 2022. SOT102 is a novel ADC with a best-in-class potential for Claudin 18.2 targeting therapies. A phase 1 dose escalation in patients with gastric and pancreatic cancer shall start in March 2022. Finally, Sotio plans to initiate a phase 1 study with our first IL-15 based immunocytokine using a PD-1 inhibitor as the targeting arm by the end of 2022.
 
“We are very excited and grateful for the continued strong support we’ve received from PPF Group today and since our inception,” said Radek Spisek, Ph.D., CEO of Sotio. “This very significant funding will allow us to advance a broad pipeline of unique clinical stage programs to key value inflection points.”
 
“Over the last several years Sotio has created an attractive pipeline of programs based on multiple differentiated modalities,” said Ladislav Bartonicek, CEO and shareholder of PPF Group. “We appreciate the successful track record of execution by the Company to this point and are confident that this funding will further enable Sotio to continue building a unique, privately financed oncology company with a mature and diversified pipeline. It will be an important step to achieve our long-term goal of building a fully integrated oncology business.”
 
The funding is contingent on the achievement of certain development and regulatory milestones.