Enara Bio has announced that Boehringer Ingelheim has exercised its option to license multiple additional Dark Antigen targets discovered and validated through the collaboration with Enara.
Dark Antigens are a new class of tumour-specific targets derived from the dark genome.
Enara and Boehringer have a longstanding strategic collaboration leveraging Enara’s EDAPT platform to discover and validate Dark Antigens in a variety of tumour types.
Previously, a major milestone in this partnership was met when Boehringer licensed multiple Dark Antigens for use in a novel vaccine for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Boehringer has now licensed further Dark Antigens to develop cancer immunotherapies for another undisclosed solid tumour type.
During this collaboration, Enara has demonstrated that the licensed antigens are promising novel targets for cancer immunotherapies, characterised by high tumour specificity, confirmed presence on the surface of tumour cells, homogenous expression within tumours and strong immunogenicity.
Dr Kevin Pojasek, CEO of Enara Bio, commented: "Our collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim has been incredibly fruitful in terms of discovering and validating completely novel cancer-specific targets across multiple significant tumour types."
"This thereby addresses a widespread industry challenge of high competitive intensity around relatively few well-known targets."
"This latest licensing decision by Boehringer underlines the power of our industry-leading EDAPT platform and our ability to deliver on bespoke discovery programmes."
This milestone underscores Enara Bio’s continued progress toward establishing Dark Antigens as a foundational class of targets for next‑generation immunotherapies.
With an expanded pharma partnership, the company is well-positioned to advance ENA101 into the clinic and accelerate the discovery of novel cell‑surface Dark Antigens to fuel a robust pipeline of novel therapeutics.
Enara Bio expects to provide further updates on ENA101 and its platform expansion throughout 2026 as it executes on its mission to deliver new precision immunotherapies for patients with cancer.