Date: 2015-12-11
Type of information: Clinical research agreement
Compound: IMP321 and therapeutic vaccine for different carcinoma types that was developed at Yamaguchi University
Company: Prima Biomed (Australia) Yamaguchi University (Japan) NEC Corporation (Japan)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Type agreement: clinical research
Action mechanism: immunotherapy product/fusion protein/monoclonal antibody/immune checkpoint inhibitor/therapeutic vaccine. IMP321 is an antigen presenting cell (APC) activator. LAG-3, or Lymphocyte Activation Gene 3, is able to stimulate and in other cases inhibit an immune response, through involvement in a number of immune pathways. IMP321 is a soluble LAG-3Ig fusion protein which works by binding to MHC class II molecules on APCs such as dendritic cells to activate them. The APCs are important for showing cancer antigens to T cells and activating them to destroy cancer cells. IMP321 is a firstin-classAPC activator. The product has been developed by the french company Immutep which Prima Biomed acquired in December 2014.
Disease: hepatocellular carcinoma and different carcinomas
Details: * On December 11, 2015, Prima BioMed announced important progress in its collaboration with NEC Corporation and Yamaguchi University in Japan. In this collaboration, first announced in May 2015, Prima’s IMP321 Antigen Presenting Cell activator (APC) is being combined with a therapeutic vaccine for different carcinoma types that was developed at Yamaguchi University. The Yamaguchi/Prima collaboration resulted from evidence that IMP321 at low doses can be used as a T cell adjuvant for cancer vaccines because of IMP321’s ability to activate dendritic cells. * On May 11, 2015, Prima BioMed announced a collaboration with NEC Corporation and Yamaguchi University for Immutep’s IMP321 in combination with a peptide vaccine developed by NEC and Yamaguchi University.
Under the original May 2015 agreement, scientists at Yamaguchi University and NEC have designed and conducted in vivo studies of the combination, in work supported by NEC Corporation. Favourable safety data from these studies has now resulted in a decision to progress the vaccine into clinical research. Under a new Material Transfer Agreement (MTA), Yamaguchi University will now work towards clinical research in cancer patients, which will be initiated in Japan in the first quarter of 2016. As with the in vivo work, this proof-of-concept research will be supported by NEC Corporation.
The preclinical study, to be conducted at Yamaguchi University and supported by NEC, will investigate the use of antigen presenting cell activator IMP321 as an adjuvant, together with peptide antigens believed to be involved in hepatocellular cancer.
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