GSK Partnership With Immatics Seeks TCR Therapeutics For Solid Tumors
Executive Summary
Deal Snapshot: GSK obtains rights to two of Immatics’ TCR targets, following on the German firm’s similar deals in recent years with Celgene, Genmab and Amgen.
Who: GlaxoSmithKline/Immatics Biotechnologies
What: GSK and Immatics will collaborate on development of T-cell receptor (TCR) therapeutics for solid tumors against proprietary targets identified by the German biotech.
Why: GSK adds to its cancer cell therapy R&D pipeline and capabilities, while Immatics signs up another deep-pocketed partner for its TCR discovery and validation technology platforms.
Financials: GSK pays Immatics €45m ($50m) up front with potential for up to $550m in milestone fees plus sales royalties for each of two programs.
Analysis: Germany’s Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH has been signing up major oncology players in partnerships around its XCEPTOR T-cell receptor discovery and XPRESIDENT discovery and validation platforms for several years, and added GlaxoSmithKline PLC to that list on 20 February in a collaboration that will bring €45m (about $50m) up front. The University of Tübingen spinout can also earn up to €507m (about $550m) per target in development, regulatory and commercial milestone fees plus potential sales royalties in the two-target agreement.
Together, the companies will identify, research and develop next-generation TCR therapeutics with an initial focus on autologous therapies, but a longer-term goal is to come up with allogeneic or “off-the-shelf” cell therapy products. The partners did not specify which targets or cancer types they will work on but said the focus of the research is in solid tumors.
GSK gets the option to select additional Immatics-discovered targets under the collaboration, with additional option and milestone fees going to the biotech if that happens. Immatics will perform development and validation up to the designation of a clinical candidate addressing each of the two targets, with GSK then taking over worldwide development, manufacturing and commercialization of the products. Immatics could co-develop one or more of the therapies, and GSK could ask the firm to conduct first-in-human studies.
Immatics CEO Harpreet Singh told Scrip there are multiple reasons why it thinks its technology – including the allogeneic ACTallo platform – can tackle the challenge of treating solid tumors with cancer immunotherapy.
“For one, we can identify naturally presented – we call them true – targets, which are highly specific to cancer cells including intracellular targets,” he said. “We focus on peptide fragments presented on human leukocyte antigen (HLA) receptors, and these targets can be relevant for a broad range of different cancer types and also enable targeting both the tumor cells directly as well as the immunosuppressive tumor stroma.”
In addition, Immatics’ various technology platforms are able to discover highly specific TCRs to reprogram a patient’s native T-cells to attack cancer cells and to invade tumors, which has been a significant challenge in immuno-oncology development, Singh said. “We are also creating highly engineered proprietary TCRs to create novel TCR bispecific [antibodies],” he added.
Singh said Immatics, which is privately held, has seen increasing interest in cell therapy approaches to solid tumors from major cancer firms in recent years, and that each of its partnerships is unique. “We are delighted to work with GSK,” the exec added. “They are truly committed to TCR-T therapies and have gathered an enormous expertise, which we see as an excellent fit to our expertise in novel targets, TCRs and autologous as well as allogeneic cell therapies.”
In addition to its headquarters in Germany, Immatics also operates out of Houston via an alliance inked in 2015 with MD Anderson Cancer Center. (Also see "Immatics Teams With MD Anderson On Novel Immuno-Oncology Targets" - Scrip, 26 Aug, 2015.) Last August, the biotech got $75m up front from Celgene Corp. in a three-target partnership focused on solid tumors. (Also see "Despite BMS Bid, Celgene Pays $75m Upfront For Immatics Assets Options" - Scrip, 28 Aug, 2019.)
In 2018, it partnered with Genmab AS to develop bispecific antibody candidates for cancer. [See Deal] And in 2017, it teamed up with Amgen Inc. in a partnership aimed at multiple undisclosed cancer types. [See Deal]