Monopteros: Medicxi-backed start-up believes MALT1 inhibition can prime tumors for checkpoint blockade

Monopteros has won the backing of Medicxi in a $20 million series A round designed to see whether its MALT1 inhibitor can selectively reprogram Tregs to enhance checkpoint inhibitors’ efficacy.

Monopteros Therapeutics Inc. has already dosed the first patient in a Phase I/Ib trial of MPT-0118, its oral MALT1 inhibitor. CEO Peter Keller told BioCentury the two-year-old company, which emerged from stealth Thursday, is the first company to test a MALT1 inhibitor in patients with solid tumors, and is aiming to be first in class in that area...