Sotio
SOTIO a.s. is a biotechnology company based in Prague, Czech Republic. The company was founded in 2010 and since 2012 it is part of PPF Group owned by Petr Kellner. The CEO of the company is Radek Špíšek, who has been with the company from its beginning as Chief Scientific Officer. The company focuses on research and development of innovative medicines for cancer. Besides European countries, it also operates in the USA, Russia and China. In January 2020, the company announced the founding of its subsidiary in Basel, Switzerland. Sotio opened a laboratory complexes Prague, Czech Republic and Beijing, China where it produces treatments for people suffering from oncological diseases.
Sotio is currently testing six oncology products at different stages of development. In 2011, the first clinical trial with active cellular immunotherapy DCVAC started, focusing on prostate cancer, ovarian cancer and lung cancer.
Sotio has its own scientific research and development and also collaborates with other partners. In recent years, Sotio and PPF have focused on investing in a number of biotechnology companies developing innovative anticancer treatments in Europe and the US. For example, it cooperates with the Swiss NBE-Therapeutics on the development of novel antibody-drug conjugate products, with its affiliate Cytune Pharma on developing novel IL-15-based immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer and with the Lead Discovery Center and the Max Planck Society on an oncology program addressing a novel target in tumor metabolism.
In August 2018, Sotio acquired Cytune Pharma. and announced to continue development of the company's lead program SO-C101 which is a human fusion protein of IL-15 and the high-affinity binding domain of IL-15Ra. It is a novel immunotherapeutic approach with potential applications in a variety of oncology indications. The first clinical trial for the program was launched in summer 2019.
