CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 01, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Scholar Rock (NASDAQ: SRRK), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of serious diseases in which protein growth factors play a fundamental role, today announced that new preclinical data from its TGFβ1 cancer immunotherapy program will be presented at the 33^rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) to be held November 9-11, 2018 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington DC. 

“Despite the clinical breakthroughs achieved by cancer immunotherapy, there remains significant unmet need with a majority of patients failing to respond to checkpoint inhibition,” said Nagesh Mahanthappa, Ph.D, President and CEO of Scholar Rock. “With a backdrop of recent efforts to understand checkpoint therapy resistance in the clinic, we look forward to this debut of data from syngeneic mouse tumor models that demonstrate the ability of a highly specific inhibitor of TGFβ1 activation to overcome primary resistance to checkpoint blockade.”

Defeating checkpoint resistance: Highly specific inhibition of latent TGFβ1 activation renders resistant solid tumors vulnerable to PD-1 blockade

• Poster Number: P550
• Poster Presentation: Saturday, November 10, 2018 at 12:20–1:50 p.m. and 7:00–8:30 p.m. ET
• Poster Hall E

About Scholar Rock
Scholar Rock is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines for the treatment of serious diseases in which signaling by protein growth factors plays a fundamental role.  Scholar Rock is creating a pipeline of novel product candidates with the potential to transform the lives of patients suffering from a wide range of serious diseases, including neuromuscular disorders, cancer, fibrosis and anemia.  Scholar Rock’s newly elucidated understanding of the molecular mechanisms of growth factor activation enabled it to develop a proprietary platform for the discovery and development of monoclonal antibodies that locally and selectively target these signaling proteins at the cellular level.  By developing product candidates that act in the disease microenvironment, the Company intends to avoid the historical challenges associated with inhibiting growth factors for therapeutic effect.  Scholar Rock believes its focus on biologically validated growth factors may facilitate a more efficient development path.

Scholar Rock® is a registered trademark of Scholar Rock, Inc.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding Scholar Rock’s plans to present data showing the ability of Scholar Rock’s inhibitor of TGFβ1 activation in sensitizing TGFβ1-predominant tumors to checkpoint inhibition. The use of words such as “may,” “might,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “project,” “intend,” “future,” “potential,” or “continue,” and other similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include the risk that the data presented are found to lack scientific merit or that subsequent research renders the data presented less meaningful, as well as those risks more fully discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in Scholar Rock's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2018, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements represent Scholar Rock’s views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Scholar Rock undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.

Scholar Rock Contact:
Investors/Media
Catherine Hu
chu@scholarrock.com
917-601-1649

Media Contact:
The Yates Network
Kathryn Morris
kathryn@theyatesnetwork.com
914-204-6412