Company Spotlight: Greywolf Therapeutics 

A clinical-stage biotech developing new therapies, Greywolf Therapeutics is on a mission to transform the way our bodies detect and fight cancer, autoimmune conditions and infectious diseases.

Helping our immune system to target disease

Founded in 2017, Greywolf is developing a novel method that tweaks how our immune system responds to disease. This approach makes cancer cells more, or (in the case of autoimmunity), less visible to the body’s immune defences.

Cheryl McAlpine, Greywolf Therapeutics’ Head of Translational Science, explains: “We’re developing molecules that can help the immune system to see and destroy cancer or prevent autoimmune disorders by stopping the body mistakenly attacking healthy tissues.”

Triggering our immune response

Greywolf focuses on two key enzymes (proteins which speed up chemical reactions in our bodies), ERAP1 and ERAP2, which influences what proteins (or antigens) are displayed on the surface of cells. These antigens act as molecular ‘heat seekers’ that help the immune system recognise and differentiate between healthy and diseased cells.

In the case of cancer, tumours often hide by masking or changing antigens. To get the upper hand in this microscopic game of hide-and-seek, Greywolf’s inhibitors aim to reveal them to our immune system, stimulating T-cell (white blood cells that coordinate immunity) activity to destroy tumour cells.

The team are excited by the encouraging data in their clinical trial, where they’re seeing confirmed partial tumor shrinkage (including in MSS colorectal cancer, a notoriously immune-resistant disease) in patients that have failed multiple lines of therapy.

Flipping its approach

In often painful, chronic, inflammatory autoimmune disorders, the immune system does the opposite and attacks healthy tissue. In this instance, Greywolf harnesses its unique approach to repel T cells from the healthy cells. This limits the body’s overreaction, which if left untreated, leads to spinal conditions such as axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA).

Daniel Green, Head of Bioinformatics, explains: “It’s about treating the disease at its source. Instead of simply calming inflammation, by inhibiting the ERAP enzymes we hope to prevent the immune system from ever seeing the wrong signal in the first place.”

From concept to clinic

Since its founding, Greywolf’s ideas have advanced from early discovery to clinical trials. The team has grown from a single room to a customised facility at Milton Park’s Innovation Centre, which is home to nearly 50 employees.

This year, the team activated an additional Phase 1/2 clinical trial, won Biotech of the Year at the Pharma Industry UK Awards and was a finalist for a Prix Galien Bridges award. These are achievements that CEO and Co-founder Peter Joyce reflects on as being “both surreal and humbling”.

Peter reflects: “We started the company in a single room with a simple idea: could we manipulate the very first detection event between the immune system and the target cell? Nearly a decade later, that idea is now being tested in patients and it’s showing real promise.”

Greywolf’s oncology (cancer) programme is returning encouraging early data in a Phase 1b clinical trial. In parallel, the team has recently started dosing patients in a landmark autoimmune trial, investigating axSpA (inflammatory spinal condition) treatment.

A home advantage for discovery

Greywolf’s roots run deep at Milton Park. Cheryl spent over 13 years working on the Park, building her career with Immunocore and Adaptimmune before joining Greywolf.

Cheryl went on to say: “As an open community, the Park is an incredibly energising place to work. Over lunch, you never know which former colleague you might bump into over coffee, swap ideas with and learn something from.”

Peter is also a familiar face within the Park’s ecosystem. As a former scientist at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, whose labs sit just across the road, he has first-hand experience of the energy that comes from being surrounded by a community of like-minded individuals.

In 2017, he made the leap to set up Greywolf with co-founder Tom McCarthy. Still based in the Innovation Centre building, the open-plan space sees the team working collaboratively with specialist partners both on the Park and overseas.

Drug discovery is a team sport

Peter reflects: “Drug discovery really is a team sport and Milton Park has always felt like ‘home turf’ for us. With Milton Park under single ownership, the flexibility of our space means we can be fleet of foot, taking our ideas and scaling them quickly.

“Being surrounded by former colleagues and like-minded occupiers in the Park’s collaborative environment has been vital to our growth in recent years.”

Looking ahead: the next decade of breakthroughs

As Greywolf looks forward, the company plans to expand its clinical programmes and deepen international partnerships. Following the recent Series B funding round, Peter says the team is ready for the next phase of growth, which will see them explore the vast potential of their approach and expand into virology.

Peter commented: “Every day is a school day in this industry but it does feel like we’re on the cusp of something transformative. We’re developing therapies that could fundamentally change how we target disease to better treat patients. Taking our discoveries into clinical trials has been particularly rewarding. It’s been a real privilege to do that here surrounded by some of the most innovative minds in UK life sciences.”