Date: 2015-08-25
Type of information: Development agreement
Compound: novel antibody-based therapeutics against multiple proprietary cancer antigens recognized by T cells
Company: MorphoSys (Germany) Immatics Biotechnologies (Germany)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Type agreement: development
Action mechanism:
Disease: solid tumors, hematological cancers
Details: * On August 25, 2015, MorphoSys and Immatics Biotechnologies announced a strategic alliance to generate novel antibody-based therapeutics against multiple proprietary cancer antigens recognized by T cells. The collaboration agreement provides MorphoSys with access to several proprietary tumor-associated peptides (TUMAPs) discovered using Immatics’ XPRESIDENT® platform to develop novel antibody-based therapeutics against these targets in a number of solid and hematological cancers. XPRESIDENT® enables access to novel antibody targets associated with proteins that are present inside cancer cells. In return, Immatics will be provided with MorphoSys’ Ylanthia® antibodies against a number of its TUMAPs, with proprietary development rights. The companies will pay each other milestones based on their respective development progress as well as royalties on marketed products. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
Tumor cells differ from healthy cells in the expression of tumor-associated proteins. These proteins are degraded inside living cells into shorter fragments, called peptides, which are then shuttled to the cell surface. Specialized receptors on the cell surfaces, so-called major histocompatibility complex (MHC) receptors, display these peptides to the external environment thereby providing a snapshot of the cell’s interior. The therapeutic programs now being pursued by Immatics and MorphoSys aim to discover Ylanthia® antibodies against these MHC-bound peptide targets in order to kill the tumor cells. Immatics’ XPRESIDENT® discovery platform is the only known high-throughput research technology to directly identify, quantify, and prioritize these cancer-related peptides.
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