Date: 2017-05-02
Type of information: Licensing agreement
Compound: Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) engineered CD8+Treg cells (CAR?Tregs)
Company: Txcell (France) Inserm (France)
Therapeutic area: Autoimmune diseases - Transplantation
Type agreement: R&D - research - licensing
Action mechanism: cell therapy/immunotherapy product/gene therapy/CAR-T cell therapy.
Disease:
Details:
- • On December 8, 2016, TxCell, a biotechnology company developing personalized cellular immunotherapies using regulatory T cells (Treg) to treat severe chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, and Inserm Transfert, on behalf of Inserm, the Nantes University (Nantes, France) and the Nantes CHU, announced the signature of an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement.
As per the terms of this agreement, TxCell has been granted an exclusive worldwide license to two patent families filed by the Center for Research in Transplantation and Immunology (CRTI), a center of excellence in the field of transplantation and immunology. The CRTI is a research unit (UMR 1064) affiliated to both Inserm, a French public organization dedicated to human health, and to the Nantes University.
These patents cover a new type of regulatory T cells (Tregs) that express the CD8 marker. This is opposed to traditionally known Tregs that express CD4 such as the Type 1 Tregs and FoxP3+Tregs. Specifically, these CD8+ Tregs are non-cytotoxic and display a unique and highly immunosuppressive mechanism of action. This mechanism is mediated through the release of cytokines with anti-inflammatory and tolerogenic (inducing immune tolerance) properties. As a result, CD8+ Tregs could offer a different and complementary approach to treat inflammatory disorders, including autoimmunity and transplant rejection. In addition, these patents also cover CAR-Treg cells made from these CD8+ Tregs.
The CRTI team, which is led by Ignacio Anegon and Carole Guillonneau, has already demonstrated the efficacy of these CD8+ Treg cell population in several preclinical models of inflammation including heart allograft, human skin transplant rejection and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in mice with humanized immune systems. In these models, the administration of CD8+ Treg cells has been shown to prevent the occurrence of skin graft rejection and GvHD, respectively.
- As per the terms of this agreement, TxCell now has exclusive
worldwide rights to both these patent families for all autoimmune diseases and transplantation-related disorders.
Financial terms: Financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
Latest news:
- • On May 2, 2017, TxCell and Inserm Transfert, on behalf of Inserm (French public organization dedicated to human health) and the Nantes University announce the signature of a R&D collaboration agreement. This collaboration agreement complements the December 2016 exclusive worldwide licensing agreement pertaining to a new subset of Treg cells originated in one of the Inserm laboratories. The agreement announced covers R&D activities to take place between TxCell and the Center for Research in Transplantation and Immunology (CRTI). TxCell and the CRTI will collaborate on the development of Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) engineered CD8+Treg cells (CAR?Tregs). These comprise a proprietary Treg cell population expressing the CD8 marker (CD8+ Tregs). The collaboration will concentrate on the treatment of transplant rejection and autoimmune diseases, specifically focusing on multiple sclerosis. In addition, TxCell and the CRTI will develop a manufacturing process to enable clinical proof-of-concept studies.
- The collaboration will expand TxCell’s research efforts, which were focusing so far on engineered CD4+ Treg cells, to explore the therapeutic potential of engineered CD8+ Treg cells in parallel. These CD8+ Tregs are non-cytotoxic and display a unique and highly immunosuppressive mechanism of action, mediated through the release of cytokines with anti-inflammatory and tolerogenic properties.
- The transplantation arm of the collaboration complements the ongoing collaboration between TxCell and the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. Since October 2016, TxCell and UBC have been working together on the development of a CAR-Treg-based cellular immunotherapy to prevent graft rejection in the context of Solid Organ Transplantation (SOT). The TxCell-UBC collaboration is focused on CAR?Treg cells made from CD4+ Treg cells.
- In addition to the background intellectual property already in-licensed in December 2016, TxCell now also has an exclusive option on programs and products developed under this collaboration agreement.
Is general: Yes
