Date: 2015-03-30
Type of information: R&D agreement
Compound: antibodies targeting OX40 and 4-1BB
Company: BioInvent (Sweden) Cancer Research Technology (CRT) (UK) University of Southampton (UK)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Type agreement: R&D
Action mechanism: monoclonal antibody. 4-1BB and OX40 are members of the TNF receptor superfamily. 4-1BB is expressed on a range of different immune cells including T cells. 4-1BB signalling is a stimulatory signal that enhances T cells. In pre-clinical studies agonistic anti- 4-1BB antibodies stimulate the expansion of antigen-specific CD8 T cells, reverses CD8 T cell anergy, prevents suppression by regulatory T cells, boosts memory CD8 T cell expansion and anti-tumour immunity. OX40 is expressed on activated CD4 and CD8 T cells, regulatory CD4 T cells, memory CD4 T cells and NKT cells. OX40 signalling is critical for the survival of antigen-primed CD4 T cells and CD4 T cell memory. It plays a role in enhancing survival and effector cell differentiation of CD8 T cells during priming, and is important for T cell expansion during secondary responses. In mouse models of cancer, anti-OX40 antibodies promote anti-tumour immunity through activation of CD8 T cells and the inhibition of regulatory CD4 T cell function within the tumour.
Disease:
Details: * On March 30, 2015, BioInvent International and Cancer Research Technology Ltd (CRT), the commercialization and development arm of Cancer Research UK, announced the start of a two-year research collaboration with leading antibody researchers at the University of Southampton.
The program aims to develop new immunotherapy treatments for cancer based on preclinical work by the Southampton group showing the potential to treat cancer using antibodies targeting OX40 and 4-1BB – known ‘co-receptors’ that help stimulate the production of killer T-cells during an immune response. One of the ways that tumour cells avoid detection is by suppressing immune responses to stop functional tumour specific T-cells from being produced. The team aims to develop antibodies that can reverse this process to stimulate the immune system to fight the cancer.
Terms of the collaboration were not disclosed, however, BioInvent has the option to take out a license to commercialize any promising results, with the parties receiving milestone payments and a share of potential revenues.
The first phase of the project aims to identify and then validate the effectiveness of the best class of antibodies to target OX40 and 4-1BB. This work will be carried out in Lund, Sweden, and Southampton, UK, using highly specialised assays and expertise developed through a prior long-standing collaboration between BioInvent and the University of Southampton.
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