Moderna and Immatics Announce Strategic Multi-Platform Collaboration
Develop Innovative Oncology Therapeutics
Moderna, Inc. and Immatics N.V. announced a strategic research and development collaboration to pioneer novel and transformative therapies for cancer patients with high unmet medical need. This broad multi-platform collaboration will leverage the deep scientific expertise and core operational capabilities of both companies, combining Immatics’ TCR platform with Moderna’s cutting-edge mRNA technology, and span various therapeutic modalities including bispecifics, cell therapy and cancer vaccines.
The strategic R&D collaboration between Moderna and Immatics focuses on three pillars:
- Applying Moderna’s mRNA technology for in vivo expression of Immatics’ next-generation, half-life extended TCR bispecifics (TCER®) targeting cancer-specific HLA-presented peptides.
- Enabling the discovery and development of novel mRNA-based cancer vaccines by leveraging Moderna’s deep knowledge of mRNA science and customized information from Immatics’ wealth of tumor and normal tissue data included in the target discovery platform XPRESIDENT® and its bioinformatics and AI platform XCUBE™.
- Evaluating Immatics’ IMA203 TCR-T therapy targeting PRAME in combination with Moderna’s PRAME mRNA-based cancer vaccine. The collaboration contemplates conducting preclinical studies and a Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of the combination with the objective of further enhancing IMA203 T cell responses.
“We are excited to embark on this strategic collaboration with Immatics, a pioneer in developing innovative cancer immunotherapies. This partnership presents a groundbreaking opportunity to leverage our mRNA technology alongside Immatics' TCR platform, potentially diversifying and augmenting the way we approach cancer treatment. We believe this collaboration will accelerate the development of novel oncology therapies and bring us one step closer to providing significant benefits for patients with high unmet medical needs,” said Rose Loughlin, Ph.D., Moderna's Senior Vice President for Research and Early Development.
“We are thrilled to join forces with Moderna in our quest to pioneer innovative and transformative therapies to combat cancer. We believe Immatics’ cancer target and TCR platforms, along with Moderna's cutting-edge mRNA technology, represent a powerful combination that has the potential to deliver meaningful benefits to cancer patients,” said Toni Weinschenk, PhD, Chief Innovation Officer at Immatics. “The rapid advancement of our first 2 TCER® programs into the clinic, with additional TCER® compounds fueling our pre-clinical pipeline, underscores our commitment to develop innovative therapeutics. We are confident that we can explore the optimal delivery of TCER® molecules through this collaboration to maximize clinical benefit in a broad patient population,” added Carsten Reinhardt, MD, PhD, Chief Development Officer of Immatics.
About the Collaboration
Under the terms of the agreement, Immatics will receive an upfront payment of $120 million. Immatics will also receive research funding and is eligible to receive development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments that could exceed $1.7 billion. Immatics is also eligible to receive tiered royalties on global net sales of TCER® products and certain vaccine products that are commercialized under the agreement. Under the agreement, Immatics has an option to enter into a global profit and loss share arrangement for the most advanced TCER®.
Moderna will lead the clinical development and commercialization of cancer vaccines and TCER® therapeutics resulting from the collaboration. Immatics will be responsible for conducting the preclinical studies and a potential Phase 1 clinical trial investigating IMA203 TCR-T in combination with the PRAME mRNA vaccine to further enhance IMA203 T cell responses. Each party will retain full ownership of its investigational PRAME compound, and the parties will fund the clinical study on a cost sharing basis.
Within the collaboration, preclinical activities conducted by Immatics will be managed by the Immatics Discovery Unit, a recently created internal division at Immatics integrating its technology platforms into one interdisciplinary team focused on all early-stage preclinical pipeline and collaboration programs.
The collaboration is subject to customary antitrust clearance in the United States.
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