GT Biopharma to Showcase Cancer-Fighting TriKE® Platform to Investors

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – February 17, 2026 – As clinical-stage immuno-oncology firm GT Biopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: GTBP) prepares to present at a key investor conference in Toronto, the company faces a pivotal moment. With a promising but early-stage cancer therapy platform and a volatile stock history, the upcoming presentation offers a crucial opportunity to build confidence and secure the capital needed to advance its innovative treatments from the laboratory to patients.

A High-Stakes Pitch in a Challenging Market

On March 5th, Executive Chairman and CEO Michael Breen will take the stage at the Centurion One Capital 9th Annual Toronto Growth Conference. The agenda, packed with presentations, panel discussions, and one-on-one meetings, is tailor-made for companies like GT Biopharma to connect directly with the financial community. For a company navigating the costly and lengthy path of drug development, these interactions are more than just a formality—they are a lifeline.

The stakes are particularly high for GT Biopharma. The company's stock has experienced significant turbulence, with its price falling over 70% in the last year, reflecting the inherent risks and investor skepticism surrounding pre-revenue biotech firms. While some analysts maintain a "Strong Buy" rating, pointing to a potential upside of over 1,600% with price targets around $8.00, others have issued "Sell" ratings, highlighting the stock's high volatility and the company's negative earnings per share.

Despite these challenges, the company reports a solid financial position with no debt and enough cash projected to last through the end of 2026. This runway provides a critical window to achieve clinical milestones and demonstrate the value of its core technology to a market hungry for breakthroughs but wary of risk. The Toronto conference will be a key test of Breen's ability to articulate a compelling vision that can translate scientific promise into investor support.

Beyond Checkpoints: The Science of TriKE®

At the heart of GT Biopharma's pitch is its proprietary TriKE® (Tri-specific Killer Engager) platform, a novel approach in the rapidly evolving field of immuno-oncology. Unlike therapies that target T-cells, TriKEs are designed to harness the power of Natural Killer (NK) cells—a type of white blood cell that forms a crucial part of the immune system's first line of defense against cancer.

The company’s technology, licensed exclusively from the University of Minnesota, creates small, single-chain proteins that act as a bridge. One end of the TriKE® binds to a patient's NK cells via the CD16 receptor, while the other end targets a specific protein on the surface of a cancer cell. A third component, a human IL-15 fragment, acts as a growth factor, stimulating the NK cells to proliferate and persist, theoretically creating a more potent and durable anti-cancer response.

GT Biopharma is aggressively advancing its pipeline, having pivoted from its first-generation technology to a more powerful second-generation platform utilizing camelid nanobodies, which are reportedly 10 to 40 times more potent.
* GTB-3650, the company's lead second-generation candidate, is currently in a Phase 1 trial for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). The trial, which began enrolling patients in January 2025, has successfully treated patients in its first three dose cohorts with no significant safety concerns, and the company expects to provide further data updates in the coming months.
* More recently, the company's focus has expanded to solid tumors. On February 3, 2026, GT Biopharma announced that the FDA had cleared its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for GTB-5550. This TriKE® targets the B7H3 protein, which is found on a variety of solid tumors, including prostate, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers. A Phase 1 trial is slated to begin in mid-2026, a significant milestone that marks the company's third TriKE® to enter clinical testing and its first major push into the vast solid tumor market.

Navigating a Crowded and Innovative Field

While the TriKE® platform is innovative, GT Biopharma is not alone in its quest to weaponize NK cells against cancer. The field is becoming increasingly competitive, with numerous companies vying for a share of a market projected to exceed $530 million in 2026.

Competitors include well-established players and agile biotechs. Fate Therapeutics boasts an extensive pipeline of engineered NK cell therapies, while Nkarta Therapeutics has shown promising data with its CAR-engineered NK cells. Dragonfly Therapeutics is developing its own tri-specific NK cell engagers, and giants like Innate Pharma are also major forces in the space.

In this crowded landscape, differentiation is key. GT Biopharma believes its use of camelid nanobodies, the integrated IL-15 signal for NK cell proliferation, and the potential for more patient-friendly subcutaneous dosing for candidates like GTB-5550 provide a competitive edge. The platform's modular design allows for the rapid development of new TriKEs targeting different cancer antigens, a flexibility that could prove crucial as the science of immuno-oncology continues to advance.

The Journey from Bench to Bedside

GT Biopharma's story is a classic tale of modern drug development, underscoring the critical partnership between academic research and commercial enterprise. The foundational TriKE® technology was not developed in a corporate lab but at the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Center by a team of pioneering researchers.

The company's exclusive worldwide license agreement with the university provides the bedrock of its intellectual property. This relationship has deepened over time, evolving into a sponsored research agreement that ensures continued collaboration and grants GT Biopharma rights to new inventions emerging from the lab. This academic-industry link provides a continuous flow of innovation and scientific validation, from the initial first-in-human studies of the company's first-generation TriKE® to the ongoing preclinical work that fuels its future pipeline.

As Michael Breen prepares for his presentation in Toronto, he will be representing more than just a company; he will be representing a decade of scientific research and a complex, capital-intensive journey. The challenge ahead is to convince investors that GT Biopharma's unique approach to harnessing the immune system is not just promising science, but a viable path to creating a new class of cancer therapies and a valuable enterprise. The market's response in the coming weeks and months will be a telling indicator of whether that message has been successfully delivered.