Immatics and Cancer Research UK to develop brain cancer vaccine
Immatics Biotechnologies, a German clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, is to collaborate with Cancer Research UK on the further development of Immatics" therapeutic cancer vaccine IMA950 in glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer.
Immatics Biotechnologies, a German clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, is to collaborate with Cancer Research UK on the further development of Immatics" therapeutic cancer vaccine IMA950 in glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer.
Cancer Research UK will sponsor and conduct a Phase I trial of IMA950 at glioma research centres in the UK via its Drug Development Office. Immatics will supply IMA950 for the trial and carry out immunomonitoring in the treated patients.
After the completion of the study, Immatics will have exclusive first rights to license the data for further development of IMA950. No financial details were disclosed.
IMA950 is Immatics" third therapeutic cancer vaccine to use the company's XPresident technology.
Dr Victoria John, head of clinical partnerships at Cancer Research UK's Drug Development Office, said: "This form of glioma is very difficult to treat successfully and we hope this trial will help to establish if the Immatics vaccine might offer another viable treatment option for people with this type of cancer."
IMA950 consists of 11 tumour-associated peptides (TUMAPs), which the Immatics XPresident technology selects on the basis of their natural presentation by tumour tissue, immunogenicity and their relevance to tumour function.