Just two weeks after dropping a TIGIT candidate jointly developed with GSK, iTeos has announced plans to wind down operations and explore strategic alternatives.
The first half of this year has been eventful for iTeos. The company’s focus was on its lead candidate, belrestotug, a human IgG1 antibody created to bind with high-affinity T cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domains (TIGIT). The asset was being evaluated in a series of Phase II trials.
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Interim analyses from the Phase II GALAXIES Lung-201 (NCT05565378) and GALAXIES H&N-202 (NCT06062420) studies did not yield good news, with both oncology trials missing their efficacy endpoints of progression-free survival.
GSK decided to axe the candidate, which it paid iTeos $625m for in a rights deal in 2021. A further $1.45bn in milestone payments were also on the table, though hopes of those diminished after the disappointing clinical data.
At the time, iTeos said it would take steps to save cash and explore strategic alternatives. The result has come just two weeks later after a thorough assessment of its pipeline and financial position. The company aims to “deliver near-term value to shareholders” using its cash reserves. iTeos ended March with $624.3 in the bank, constituting a cash runway that would have supported operations through 2027, as per its Q1 2025 earnings report.
Money divided up to shareholders could also be supplemented by proceeds from selling other assets in its pipeline. This includes two Phase I oncology programmes comprising ENT1 inhibitor EOS-984 and anti-TREM2 antibody EOS-215, along with a preclinical obesity programme targeting ENT1.
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By GlobalDataAs per a SEC filing, iTeos could spend up to $24.7m on employee termination costs, with a further $11.1m in headwinds resulting from winding down its clinical programs. Regarding a timeframe, the biotech expects to complete most wind-down duties in Q3 2025, though the clinical development programmes are expected to wrap up at a later date.
iTeos is the latest, but perhaps most high-profile casualty, of a faltering anti-TIGIT landscape. Until this point, only drug candidates had primarily been lost, as opposed to entire biotechs. Last month, for example, BeiGene terminated development of ociperlimab, which it was targeting as a treatment for lung cancer. MSD and Roche have also both reported failures with their respective candidates in the past year.
In a separate development, cell therapy developer Cargo Therapeutics laid off 90% of its workforce and shelved R&D work, whilst chronic spontaneous urticaria specialist Third Harmonic Bio outlined plans for dissolution last month.
