Date: 2017-07-03
Type of information: Milestone
Compound: multiple novel targets not addressable using antibody-based technologies
Company: Immunocore (UK) GSK (UK)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Type agreement: research - development - licensing
Action mechanism:
Disease: undisclosed
Details:
- • On July 9, 2013, Immunocore has announced it has entered into a partnership with GSK for multiple novel targets not addressable using antibody-based technologies. Immunocore will be responsible for all of the pre-clinical development and for the initial clinical trials in patients and GSK will be responsible for the remaining development and commercialisation of the products.
- Immunocore has created a world-leading platform of bi-specific biological drugs, called ImmTACs (Immune mobilising mTCR Against Cancer), which exploit the power of T Cell Receptors (TCRs) to recognise intracellular changes that occur during cancer or viral infection. This unique recognition ability of TCRs sets them apart from traditional antibody-based therapies that can only recognise changes on the surface of cells, and provides, for the first time, the ability to develop extremely potent targeted therapies for cancers that are currently poorly served.
- This is Immunocore’s second major partnership this year. Last month, Immunocore has entered into a research collaboration and licensing agreement with Genentech for the discovery and development of multiple novel cancer targets using ImmTAC technology.
Financial terms:
- Under the terms of the agreement, Immunocore will receive up to a total of £142 million (€ 164.4 million) in pre-clinical milestone payments across the targets. In addition, for each product that reaches the market, up to £200 million (€ 231.3 million) is due to Immunocore in development and commercial milestone payments, plus up to double digit royalties.
Latest news:
- • On July 3, 2017, Immunocore announced that GSK has selected a third target as part of their ongoing oncology discovery collaboration for multiple novel targets not addressable with antibody-based technologies. Immunocore will generate a novel ImmTAC® molecule against the selected target which is relevant in multiple cancers. This is the third programme to be initiated as part of the discovery collaboration with GSK, announced in 2013.
- • On May 8, 2017, Immunocore announced that it has identified a lead compound in its second discovery programme with GSK. This novel ImmTAC lead molecule is relevant in a number of cancers including triple negative breast cancers, oesophageal, gastric and ovarian cancers. The identification of this new ImmTAC has triggered an undisclosed milestone payment to Immunocore. The company is now working on two ImmTAC programmes under the discovery collaboration agreement with GSK. The first ImmTAC programme under Immunocore’s GSK collaboration is on track to be submitted as an IND this year and will enter Phase I clinical studies during early 2018, with potential application in non-small cell lung cancer, bladder cancer, synovial sarcoma, melanoma and ovarian cancer.
- • On November 7, 2013, Immunocore has announced the achievement of its first milestone in its research and licensing agreement with GSK for multiple novel targets.The achievement comes less than four months after the companies signed their agreement and triggers a first undisclosed milestone payment to Immunocore following the identification of a first lead candidate ImmTAC against one of the targets.
Is general: Yes
