immatics Enters Collaboration with Cancer Research UK to Develop Multi-target Rationally Designed Therapeutic Cancer Vaccine
IMA950 to enter Phase I development for glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer
immatics biotechnologies GmbH announced it has signed a collaboration with Cancer Research UK for the further development of immatics’ therapeutic cancer vaccine IMA950 in glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer. Under the terms of the agreement, Cancer Research UK will sponsor and conduct a Phase I trial of IMA950 to be carried out at leading glioma research centres in the UK via its Drug Development Office. immatics will supply the drug IMA950 for the trial and also undertake immunomonitoring in the treated patients.
After the completion of the study, immatics will have an exclusive first right to take a license to the data for further development of IMA950. No financial details were disclosed.
Paul Higham, CEO of immatics said: “Cancer Research UK is a world-renowned cancer research organisation and we are delighted that through this collaboration we will be able to efficiently move our third therapeutic cancer vaccine into the clinic, highlighting the wide applicability and productivity of our XPRESIDENT™ technology platform.”
Dr Victoria John, head of clinical partnerships at Cancer Research UK’s Drug Development Office, said: “We’re very pleased to be taking on the next stage of this vaccine’s development. This form of glioma is very difficult to treat successfully and we hope this trial will help to establish if the immatics vaccine might offer another viable treatment option for people with this type of cancer.”
IMA950 is a therapeutic cancer vaccine generated through immatics’ proprietary XPRESIDENT™ technology. It consists of 11 tumour-associated peptides (TUMAPs) which the immatics platform selects on the basis of their natural presentation by tumour tissue, immunogenicity and their relevance to tumour function. This unique approach to rationally designed therapeutic vaccines which are a combination of multiple, highly relevant tumour peptides is at the core of all immatics’ clinical programmes.
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