Pilatus Biosciences is pioneering the discovery and development of first-in-class antibodies and bifunctional proteins targeting metabolic checkpoints, with the goal of driving immuno-microenvironment reprogramming to combat cancer.
Metabolic stress in the tumor microenvironment presents a formidable hurdle to the effectiveness of immune cells in combating cancer, as it triggers adaptive responses that impair the ability of immune system to eradicate the disease.
To tackle this challenge, Pilatus Biosciences leverages cutting-edge innovations rooted in the groundbreaking research of Dr. Ping-Chih Ho at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the University of Lausanne. Our science focuses on harnessing metabolic adaptations regulated or modulated by CD36 and interleukin-10 (IL-10) to drive immunometabolic and microenvironmental reprogramming, with the aim of overcoming this obstacle and advancing the field of cancer immunotherapy.
Pipeline
Transformative Immunotherapy Pipelines
Therapeutics / indications
Discovery
IND Enabling
Phase 1
Pipelines were discovered by AI-assisted antibody engineering platforms
a) In silico-designed synthetic human antibody libraries
b) AI-assisted antibody optimization
Our team
Our team with cross-border experience in drug discovery, cancer biology, translational medicine, and clinical research, and we are dedicated to tackling the bottlenecks in cancer immunotherapy.
By leveraging external expertise and fostering collaboration, we quickly build competitive pipelines for developing urgently needed medications that address unmet medical needs.
News & Events
November, 2024
Pilatus Biosciences Inc. Receives Orphan Drug Designation from FDA for PLT012 in Treatment of Liver and Intrahepatic Bile Duct Cancer
Pilatus Biosciences Inc. is pleased to announce that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) to its leading molecule, PLT012, for the treatment of liver and intrahepatic bile duct cancer (HCC/ICCA). This milestone, achieved in November 2024, signals a significant step forward in the development of innovative therapies for patients suffering from these challenging malignancies.
Pilatus Biosciences, a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company spun out from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (Lausanne), is leading the development of first-in-class biologics targeting metabolic checkpoints. Supported by the Cancer Research Institute (New York), the company employs a pioneering approach to immunometabolism, reprogramming the immune microenvironment to combat cancer effectively.
“We are honored to receive Orphan Drug Designation for PLT012, a milestone that reflects our dedication to addressing the urgent need for innovative therapies in liver and intrahepatic bile duct cancer,” said Dr. Raven Lin, CEO and Co-founder of Pilatus Biosciences. Prof. Ping-Chih Ho, Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board and Co-founder of Pilatus Biosciences, added, “PLT012 leverages metabolic checkpoint targeting to reprogram the tumor microenvironment (TME), offering a unique therapeutic approach. This designation highlights the promising scientific discoveries and results we have achieved in addressing the underserved area. It further motivates us to accelerate PLT012’s development and collaborate globally to bring this promising treatment to patients with limited options.”
Currently, Pilatus Biosciences is advancing the development of PLT012, actively engaging with regulatory authorities and stakeholders to expedite the availability of this promising therapy.
About PLT012
PLT012, is a humanized anti-CD36 antibody with a unique dual mechanism of action (MOA): it simultaneously disarms immunosuppressive cell populations and amplifies effector cells functions. PLT012 has shown potential against multiple tumors with unmet medical needs. It is set to advance to its first U.S. IND submission and first patient dosing in 2025. As a monotherapy, PLT012 demonstrates remarkable anti-tumor efficacy in both immune 'hot' and 'cold' tumor models with a significant augmentation in GzmB-expressing CD8+ T cells and reductions in both intratumoral Tregs and pro-tumorigenic macrophage. Additionally, PLT012 treatment alters the exhaustion features of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells by increasing the populations of progenitor- (Texprog) and terminal-exhausted T cells (Texterm), highlighting enhanced anti-tumor immunity when combined with immune checkpoint blockade therapies, such as PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors.
About Orphan Drug Designation
The FDA's Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) program provides orphan status to drugs defined as those intended for the treatment, diagnosis or prevention of rare diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the United States. ODD qualifies the sponsor of the drug for certain development incentives, including tax credits for qualified clinical testing, prescription drug user fee exemptions and 7 years marketing exclusivity upon FDA approval.
About Liver and Intrahepatic Bile Duct Cancer (HCC/ICCA)
Primary liver cancer first occurs in either the liver or the intrahepatic bile ducts. The two most common types of liver and intrahepatic bile duct cancer are hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, 80-90% of cases), and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICCA, 10-15% of cases). In HCC and ICCA, metabolic reprogramming plays a crucial role in promoting tumor progression by modifying the TME to support tumor growth and immune evasion.
For HCC, the most common first-line systemic therapies include either a combination of a PD-L1 inhibitor and a VEGF inhibitor or a combination of a PD-L1 inhibitor and a CTLA-4 inhibitor. Most patients will require multiple lines of treatment, as the recurrence rate of HCC has been reported to be as high as 88%. Second-line treatments for HCC are primarily multiple tyrosine kinase receptor inhibitors, even the incidence of a second HCC recurrence is 50%-70%. Additional lines of treatment may be administered if the patient can tolerate a second-line therapy with a different MOA than those previously administered.
PLT012 emerges as a promising candidate, demonstrating dual MOA that synergizes with existing treatments and provide immune-stimulating effects in the TME, potentially enhancing therapeutic outcomes.
About Pilatus Biosciences Inc
Pilatus Biosciences is pioneering in discovering and developing first-in-class antibodies and bifunctional proteins that target metabolic checkpoints, with the goal of driving immuno-microenvironment reprogramming to combat cancer.
With deep expertise in immunometabolism research, Pilatus Biosciences partners with leading cancer research institutions and hospitals worldwide. To strengthen its R&D capabilities, the company established a lab in Taiwan in July 2024, focused on supporting early clinical development and biomarker discovery.
Pilatus Biosciences operates globally, utilizing a cross-border functional team and fostering external collaborations to maintain an agile, cost-efficient development platform, driving its efforts to create groundbreaking therapies.
For more information about Pilatus Biosciences and its work in the field of oncology, please visit https://www.pilatusbio.com/
For more information, please contact:
Pilatus Biosciences
Raven Lin, PhD, MBA, Chief Executive Officer
E-mail: raven.lin@pilatusbio.com
Office line: +41 (0)795060711
Media and partnering/investor inquiries should be directed to:
info@pilatusbio.comNovember, 2024
Pilatus Biosciences to Unveil Breakthrough Preclinical Data at SITC 2024: PLT012’s Transformative Potential in Liver Metastasis Treatment
Pilatus Biosciences (the “Company”), a biotechnology company pioneering first-in-class biologics targeting metabolic checkpoints to revolutionize cancer treatment, today announced that it will present new preclinical data on its anti-CD36 antibody program, PLT012, at the upcoming Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2024 Annual Meeting. The data will be shared in a poster presentation entitled “PLT012 Targets CD36-Mediated Metabolic Adaptations to Restore Anti-Tumor Immunity in Liver Metastasis by Disarming M2 Macrophages and Enhancing Effector Functions” on November 9th, 2024 (Abstract #1346).
Details of the poster presentation are as follows:
Full text of the abstracts has been released on the SITC website and the posters will be available on the Company's website.
About CD36 and PLT012
About Pilatus Biosciences
About CD36 and PLT012
CD36, a fatty acid transporter, is known to be upregulated in malignant cells and various tumor-associated immune cells, such as regulatory T cells, tumor-associated macrophages, and CD8+ T cells. This upregulation facilitates metabolic adaptation to the lipid-rich tumor microenvironment (TME). The CD36-driven metabolic shift not only reprograms cellular metabolism but also modifies immune cell functions, fostering an immunosuppressive TME characterized by increased exhaustion of tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells and a rise in immunosuppressive immune populations.
PLT012, a humanized anti-CD36 antibody, is designed to specifically inhibit CD36-mediated fatty acid uptake while preserving other physiological functions. Its goal is to disarm immunosuppressive cells within the tumor microenvironment and enhance both innate and adaptive anti-tumor immune responses. This approach has demonstrated significant anti-tumor activity and shows potential for synergistic effects when combined with current immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapies. Comprehensive data will be presented at SITC 2024.
About Pilatus Biosciences
Pilatus Biosciences is a Swiss/US-based R&D company spun out of Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in 2022. Our science is rooted in the ground-breaking research of Dr. Ping-Chih Ho at the University of Lausanne on harnessing metabolic adaptations regulated or modulated by Metabolic Checkpoints to drive immunometabolic and microenvironmental reprogramming, with the aim of advancing the field of cancer immunotherapy.
For more information, please visit https://www.pilatusbio.com/ on LinkedIn .
For more information, please contact:
Pilatus Biosciences
Raven Lin, PhD, MBA, Chief Executive Officer
E-mail: raven.lin@pilatusbio.com
Office line: +41 (0) 795060711
Media and partnering/investor inquiries should be directed to:
March, 2024
Pilatus Biosciences Announces an Upcoming Presentation at the AACR Annual Meeting Unveiling Preclinical Proof of Concept Data on PLT012, Highlighting its Role in Reprogramming the Tumor Microenvironment against Cancer
Pilatus Biosciences (the “Company”), a biotechnology company focused on shaping the future of cancer treatment through trailblazing First-in-class biologics focusing on metabolic checkpoints, today announces that the Company will present new preclinical data of its anti-CD36 antibody program, PLT012, at the upcoming American Association for Cancer Research’s Annual Meeting (“AACR 2024”). The data will be shared in a poster presentation entitled “Revitalizing Anti-Tumor Immunity Through PLT012 Monoclonal Antibody, Targeting CD36 for Metabolic Rewiring in the Tumor Microenvironment”, on April 8th, 2024 (Abstract #2370)
Details of the poster presentation are as follows:
Full text of the abstracts has been released on the AACR website and the posters will be available on the Company's website.
About CD36 and PLT012
About Pilatus Biosciences
Pilatus Biosciences
About CD36 and PLT012
CD36, a fatty acid transporter, has been reported to be up-regulated in both malignant cells and tumor-associated immune cells, including regulatory T cells, tumor-associated macrophages and CD8+ T cells, to adjust the metabolic preference, which allow the cells to adapt in the lipid-enriched tumor microenvironment (“TME”). This CD36-mediated adaption not only alters metabolic regulations, but also impacts the immune cell properties to construct an immunosuppressive TME with increased exhausted tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells and immunosuppressive regulatory T cells.
PLT012, a humanized anti-CD36 antibody, was developed to block CD36-mediated fatty acid uptake without interfering with other physiological functions. PLT012 aims to disarm intratumoral Treg and boost tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells in the tumor microenvironment, leading to remarkable anti-tumor efficacy and synergistic effects with current ICB therapies. More detailed data will be presented at AACR 2024.
About Pilatus Biosciences
Pilatus Biosciences is a Swiss/US-based R&D company spun out of Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in 2022. Our science is rooted in the ground-breaking research of Dr. Ping-Chih Ho at the University of Lausanne on harnessing metabolic adaptations regulated or modulated by Metabolic Checkpoints to drive immunometabolic and microenvironmental reprogramming, with the aim of advancing the field of cancer immunotherapy.
For more information, please visit https://www.pilatusbio.com/ on LinkedIn .
For more information, please contact:
Pilatus Biosciences
Raven Lin, PhD, MBA, Chief Executive Officer
E-mail: raven.lin@pilatusbio.com
Office line: +41 (0) 795060711
Media and partnering/investor inquiries should be directed to:
October, 2023
Pilatus Biosciences Announces Preclinical Data of First-in-class Anti-CD36 Antibody PLT012 at SITC 2023
Pilatus Biosciences (the “Company”), a biotechnology company focused on d shaping the future of cancer treatment through trailblazing First-in-class biologics focusing on metabolic checkpoints, today announced that the Company will present new preclinical data of its anti-CD36 antibody program, PLT012, at the upcoming Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s 38th Annual Meeting (SITC 2023). The data will be shared in a poster presentation entitled “PLT012, a monoclonal antibody targeting CD36, unleashes anti-tumor immunity via metabolic reprogramming in tumor microenvironment”, on November 3rd, 2023 (Abstract #1401)
Details of the poster presentation are as follows:
Full text of the abstracts will be released on the SITC website at 8:00 a.m. ET on the same day (SITC link), and the posters will be available on the Company's website(Pilatus link).
About CD36 and PLT012
CD36, a fatty acid transporter, has been reported to be up-regulated in both malignant cells and tumor-associated immune cells, including regulatory T cells, tumor-associated macrophages and CD8+ T cells, to adjust the metabolic preference, which allows the cells to adapt in the lipid-enriched tumor microenvironment (“TME”). This CD36-mediated adaption not only alters metabolic regulations but also impacts the immune cell properties to construct an immunosuppressive TME with increased exhausted tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells and immunosuppressive regulatory T cells.
PLT012, a humanized anti-CD36 antibody, was developed to block CD36-mediated fatty acid uptake without interfering with other physiological functions. PLT012 aims to disarm intratumoral Treg and boost tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells in the tumor microenvironment, leading to remarkable anti-tumor efficacy and synergistic effects with current ICB therapies. More detailed data will be presented at SITC 2023.
About Pilatus Biosciences
Pilatus Biosciences is a Swiss/US-based R&D company spun out of Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in 2022. Our science is rooted in the ground-breaking research of Dr. Ping-Chih Ho at the University of Lausanne on harnessing metabolic adaptations regulated or modulated by CD36 and IL-10 to drive immunometabolic and microenvironmental reprogramming, with the aim of advancing the field of cancer immunotherapy.
For more information, please visit https://www.pilatusbio.com/ on LinkedIn .
For more information, please contact:
Pilatus Biosciences
Raven Lin, PhD, MBA, Chief Executive Officer
E-mail: raven.lin@pilatusbio.com
Office line: +41 (0) 795060711
Media and partnering/investor inquiries should be directed to:
info@pilatusbio.comOctober, 2023
Pilatus Biosciences Announces Preclinical Data of Anti-PD-L1/IL-10 Immunocytokine PLT011 at SITC 2023
Pilatus Biosciences (the “Company”), a biotechnology company focused on d shaping the future of cancer treatment through trailblazing First-in-class biologics focusing on metabolic checkpoints, today announced that the Company will present new discovery data of its anti-PD-L1/IL10 bifunctional immunocytokine program, PLT011, at the upcoming Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s 38th Annual Meeting (SITC 2023). The data will be shared in a poster presentation entitled “A novel PD-L1 antibody-IL10 fusion protein, PTL011, exhibits synergized therapeutic effect in Hepatocellular Carcinoma mouse model”, on November 4th, 2023 (Abstract #836).
Pilatus Biosciences
Details of the poster presentation are as follows:
Full text of the abstracts will be released on the SITC website at 8:00 a.m. ET on the same day, and the posters will be available on the Company's website.
About IL-10 and PLT011
Interleukin-10 (IL-10), also known as cytokine synthesis inhibitory factor (CSIF), is a 35 kD homodimer that is composed of two non-covalently bonded monomers. IL-10 exerts multiple effects in immunoregulation and inflammation, particularly on downregulating the expression of Th1 cytokines, MHC class II antigens, and co-stimulatory molecules on macrophages. In contrast, IL-10 also presents several immunostimulatory properties and there have been attempts to exploit this for cancer therapy.
PLT011, a bifunctional anti-PDL1/IL10 fusion protein consisting of an anti-PD-L1 antibody with IL-10 polypeptides, was developed to dual block PD-L1/PD-1-mediated immunosuppression and enhance CD8 T-cell cytotoxicity in the tumor micro-environment. PLT011 aims to reinvigorate tumor-reactive terminally exhausted CD8+ T cells to boost anti-tumor immunity. Here, Pilatus will present the data during drug development and efficacy studies in mouse HCC model. More detailed data will be presented at SITC 2023.
About Pilatus Biosciences
Pilatus Biosciences is a Swiss/US-based R&D company spun out of Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in 2022. Our science is rooted in the ground-breaking research of Dr. Ping-Chih Ho at the University of Lausanne on harnessing metabolic adaptations regulated or modulated by CD36 and IL-10 to drive immunometabolic and microenvironmental reprogramming, with the aim of advancing the field of cancer immunotherapy.
For more information, please visit https://www.pilatusbio.com/ on LinkedIn .
For more information, please contact:
Pilatus Biosciences
Raven Lin, PhD, MBA, Chief Executive Officer
E-mail: raven.lin@pilatusbio.com
Office line: +41 (0) 795060711
Media and partnering/investor inquiries should be directed to:
info@pilatusbio.com
Careers
Join the dynamic and fast-growing team at Pilatus Biosciences, located in the heart of Europe’s biotech hub, the Biopôle science park in Lausanne, Switzerland. Our groundbreaking work in immunometabolism, led by our co-founder and collaborations with renowned research institutes, drives our development of next-generation cancer therapeutics. As part of our team, you’ll have the opportunity to work on cutting-edge research while enjoying a vibrant and socially responsible work environment.
We foster a culture of collaboration and innovation, and we’re committed to providing exceptional benefits to our team members. Join us in making a meaningful impact on the lives of cancer patients and pushing the boundaries of scientific discovery.
We thank you for your interest in joining us to bring the next generation of therapeutics to cancer patients. Any available positions will be listed below – links will take you to an external jobs-posting web site for position details and application procedures.
If there are no currently open positions, feel free to reach out to us at info@pilatusbio.com as we are always interested in hearing how you might be able to help us to build our team.
Contact
General inquiries are welcomed by email to info@pilatusbio.com