24 February 2021 - - US-based biotechnology company Xilio Therapeutics has closed a USD 95m Series C financing, the company said.

Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance Xilio's lead therapeutic candidates, XTX202 (tumor-selective IL-2) and XTX101 (tumor-selective anti-CTLA4 mAb), into clinical trials.

Investigational new drug applications for XTX202 and XTX101 are expected to be filed with the US Food and Drug Administration in 2021.

The financing was led by Rock Springs Capital and was joined by Bain Capital Life Sciences, Deerfield Management company and RA Capital Management, among other new investors.

Xilio's existing investors, including Atlas Venture, SV Health Investors, Takeda Ventures, RiverVest Venture Partners, and MRL Ventures Fund, also participated in the financing.

Concurrent with the closing, Dave Gardner of Rock Springs Capital and Andrew Hack, M.D., Ph.D, of Bain Capital Life Sciences will join the Xilio Therapeutics board of directors.

Xilio's promising candidates, XTX202 (tumor-selective IL-2) and XTX101 (tumor-selective anti-CTLA4 mAb), have demonstrated significant anti-tumor effects with minimal peripheral effects in preclinical models, indicating the potential to achieve substantially higher levels of efficacy compared with currently approved IL-2 and anti-CTLA4 therapies.

Tumor selectivity holds the promise of deepening patient responses to these validated therapies, as well as substantially increasing the number of patients who could benefit from them.

Xilio Therapeutics is a privately-held biotechnology company that uses its proprietary technology to engineer potent cancer immunotherapies that unleash the power of the immune system selectively at the site of the tumor.

Thus, Xilio has designed these therapies to maximize efficacy while overcoming the significant toxicities associated with certain clinically validated immuno-oncology therapies, such as IL-2 and anti-CTLA4.

The broad applicability of these therapies across cancer types means that a significant number of patients could benefit from these potentially curative medicines.

Xilio was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Waltham, Mass.