Trillium Therapeutics Shares Explode on Pfizer Investment

Shares of Trillium Therapeutics were skyrocketing over 40% on a $25 million Pfizer investment this week.

The clinical-stage immuno-oncology company developing innovative therapies for the treatment of cancer, announced that it has received an equity investment of $25 million from Pfizer Inc.

Shares may have also experienced a pop thanks to optimism over the impressive safety profile of TTI-622, an antibody-like fusion protein to be used for treating cancer.

The company announced that it has agreed to sell nearly 2.3 million of its common shares at a price of $10.88 per share to Pfizer for gross proceeds of $25.0 million. The offering is expected to close on or about September 10, 2020.

Trillium Therapeutics also revealed that in the phase 1 portion of the study of TTI-622, the safety assessment of the 8 mg/kg dosing cohort has been successfully completed. One Grade 4 thrombocytopenia dose-limiting toxicity was reported among the six evaluable patients; no additional Grade 3 or higher thrombocytopenia events have been observed.

“We are exceedingly encouraged by the evolving profile of TTI-622, our SIRPa-IgG4 Fc fusion protein, as demonstrated in the ongoing dose-escalation study in relapsed and refractory lymphomas,” said Jan Skvarka, Trillium’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

“TTI-622 is showing substantial monotherapy activity in highly pre-treated patients, with a broad therapeutic window, a rapid onset of action, and across a range of lymphoma indications. With no significant safety signals observed, we are further escalating the dose. TTI-621, our SIRPa-IgG1 Fc fusion protein, is showing a strong safety profile, and we have not observed any dose-limiting thrombocytopenia for doses up to 1.4 mg/kg.”

“We continue to be impressed by the safety profile of TTI-622 and believe this is the strongest monotherapy data shown by a CD47 targeting candidate. Our KOLs have previously suggested that early monotherapy activity for any novel IO drug is important and can be an early sign of success. We believe that even if the higher dose of 12 mg/kg is not tolerable, the 50% ORR achieved at the 8mg/kg level is sufficient to advance this drug further,” remarked analyst Boris Peaker, equity analyst at Cowen.

“Previous discussions with management indicate that TTI-622 enrollment has been less impacted by COVID-19 since it is targeting a more aggressive tumor type (DLBCL) thanTTI-621 (CTCL). Taking into account both the timing of enrollment and today’s impressive update, we continue to believe that TTI-622 could become the lead drug candidate,” Peaker added.

Shares are up over 800% so far this year after closing at $1.03 in 2019.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Trillium Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIL) and have not been compensated
for this article.