Gritstone Oncology Changes its Name to Gritstone bio to Reflect Expanded Therapeutic Focus

EMERYVILLE, Calif., May 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Gritstone Oncology, Inc. (Nasdaq: GRTS), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing the next generation of cancer and infectious disease immunotherapies, today announced it is changing its name to Gritstone bio, Inc. effective immediately.

“Gritstone began its life with the goal of building a vaccine platform that would drive strong CD8+ cytotoxic T cell responses to cancer antigens in humans, a challenge that the cancer immunotherapy field had struggled to meet,” said Andrew Allen, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Gritstone. “Having successfully achieved that goal, and with Phase 2 cancer clinical trials underway, we broadened our scope to address infectious diseases where vaccine induction of potent CD8+ T cell responses could complement the typically elicited neutralizing antibodies, offering the prospect of robust and durable clinical protection. This strategic extension was driven by immediate needs to address the global pandemic, future needs given the recurring emergence of novel viruses, and interest by industry and government agencies to gain access to our cutting-edge technologies.”

From inception in 2015 until 2020, the company’s activities were focused on the development of novel neoantigen-based immunotherapies for the treatment of patients with cancer. The company’s Phase 2 oncology programs are GRANITE, an individualized immunotherapy, and SLATE, an “off the shelf” but personalized immunotherapy. In 2021, Gritstone launched a COVID-19 program (“CORAL”) supported by collaborations with The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The Phase 1 CORAL clinical trial, which is funded by NIAID and conducted through the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium, is underway. In February 2021, the company also announced a collaboration agreement with Gilead Sciences for the development of an HIV-specific therapeutic vaccine using Gritstone’s vaccine platforms.

Karin Jooss, Ph.D., head of Research and Development at Gritstone, added, “As innovative scientists, we are excited to expand the application of our technologies beyond oncology into additional relevant disease areas, informed by common biological principles and validated by experimental data. As drug developers, we are motivated by the opportunity to impact more patient lives through the advancement of new, potentially life-saving immunotherapies. We are pioneering the use of ‘chimeric antigen cassettes’ whereby our vaccines contain whole genes/proteins to drive antibody responses, as well as carefully selected gene fragments that drive diverse CD8+ T cell responses. These two elements, antibodies and CD8+ T cells, typically cooperate in humans to drive deep, broad and durable immunity to pathogens, and we are doing this in the context of COVID-19 to try to be ready for future Spike variants that may escape narrow antibody immunity conferred by first generation COVID-19 vaccines.”

About Gritstone
Gritstone bio (Nasdaq: GRTS), a clinical-stage biotechnology company, is developing the next generation of immunotherapies against multiple cancer types and infectious diseases. Gritstone develops its products by leveraging two key pillars—first, a proprietary machine learning-based platform, Gritstone EDGE^TM, which is designed to predict antigens that are presented on the surface of cells, such as tumor or virally-infected cells, that can be seen by the immune system; and second, the ability to develop and manufacture potent immunotherapies utilizing these antigens to potentially drive the patient’s immune system to specifically attack and destroy disease-causing cells. The company’s lead oncology programs include an individualized neoantigen-based immunotherapy, GRANITE, and an “off the shelf” shared neoantigen-based immunotherapy, SLATE, which are being evaluated in clinical studies. The company also has a bispecific antibody (BiSAb) program for solid tumors in lead optimization. Within its infectious disease pipeline, Gritstone is advancing CORAL, a COVID-19 program to develop a second-generation vaccine with support from departments within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a license agreement with La Jolla Institute for Immunology. Additionally, the company has a global collaboration for the development of a therapeutic HIV vaccine with Gilead Sciences. For more information, please visit gritstone.com.

Gritstone Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements related to the potential of our product candidates. Such forward-looking statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause Gritstone’s research and clinical development programs, future results, performance or achievements to differ significantly from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the uncertainties inherent in the drug development process, including Gritstone’s programs’ early stage of development, the process of designing and conducting preclinical and clinical trials, the regulatory approval processes, the timing of regulatory filings, the challenges associated with manufacturing drug products, Gritstone’s ability to successfully establish, protect and defend its intellectual property and other matters that could affect the sufficiency of existing cash to fund operations. Gritstone undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. For a further description of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to the business of the company in general, see Gritstone’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 11, 2021 and any current and periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Gritstone Contacts
Media:
Dan Budwick
1AB
(973) 271-6085
dan@1abmedia.com

Investors:
Alexandra Santos
Wheelhouse Life Science Advisors
(510) 871-6161
asantos@wheelhouselsa.com