Pathios Therapeutics

Launched in 2017, Pathios is a drug discovery and development company focused on translating innovative science into new medicines. Pathios was founded by a team of experienced biotech and pharmaceutical industry professionals, entrepreneurs and clinicians. To date, Pathios has secured a total of US$13.2M in Series A funding from the leading venture capital firms, Canaan Partners and Brandon Capital. The Company is focused on developing small-molecule inhibitors of the pH-sensing G protein-coupled receptor GPR65 to target immunosuppressive macrophages in advanced cancers. The acidic tumour microenvironment, inherent to many cancers, causes a profound immunosuppression of infiltrating immune cells. This environment disarms the anti-cancer immune response and negates the effectiveness of current immunotherapies. This is particularly evident in tumour associated macrophages (TAM), where acidity is sensed by the cell-surface receptor GPR65 leading to an induction of the transcriptional repressor ICER (inducible cAMP early repressor) and the widespread suppression of a host of pro-inflammatory mediators and anti-tumorigenic genes. The importance of the GPR65 pathway in cancer is underscored by the presence of a genetic coding variant in the GPR65 gene in a small proportion of the population that reduces receptor signalling and which is linked to increased survival across a range of cancer types. Pathios is headquartered in Oxford, UK.