Date: 2014-07-16
Type of information: R&D agreement
Compound: T cell-based cancer therapies using ImmTAC technology
Company: Eli Lilly (USA -IN) Immunocore (UK)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Type agreement: R&D development
Action mechanism: Immunocore\'s ImmTAC (Immune mobilising mTCR Against Cancer) technology is designed to enable the immune system to recognise and kill cancer or viral cells. T Cell Receptors naturally recognise diseased cells and Immunocore\'s competitive advantage is its ability to engineer high affinity T Cell Receptors and link them to an antibody fragment which can activate the immune system to kill the targeted cancer or viral cells. These bi-specific proteins, called ImmTACS, have the potential to be potent anti-cancer or anti-viral agents. The most advanced ImmTAC is in Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of late stage melanoma.
Disease:
Details: * On July 16, 2014, Eli Lilly and Immunocore announced they have entered into a co-discovery and co-development collaboration to research and potentially develop novel T cell-based cancer therapies. Using Immunocore\'s Immune Mobilising Monoclonal T-Cell Receptor Against Cancer (ImmTAC) technology, the companies will seek to use the power of the body\'s own immune system to attack cancer cells. ImmTACs have shown potential to direct a patient\'s T cells to specifically target the cancerous cells, avoiding damage to healthy cells.
Financial terms: Under the terms of the agreement, Immunocore will receive an upfront fee of $15 million per program for the discovery of novel ImmTACs against jointly-selected cancer targets in order to generate preclinical candidate packages. If Lilly accepts a preclinical candidate package to develop and potentially commercialize, Immunocore will receive an opt-in fee of $10 million and will have an option to continue co-development with Lilly on a cost-sharing and profit-sharing basis. If Immunocore does not exercise its option, it will be entitled to potential future sinificant milestone and royalty payments.
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