HQ Team
September 11, 2023: Moderna Inc. announced a pact with Immatics NV, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, to develop cancer therapies using a combination of mRNA and AI platforms.
According to the agreement, Immatics will receive an upfront payment of $120 million. Immatics will also receive research funding and is eligible to receive development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments that could exceed $1.7 billion.
Immatics is also eligible to receive tiered royalties on global net sales of its products and certain vaccine products that are commercialised under the agreement.
Immatics has the option to enter into a global profit and loss share arrangement for the most advanced TCER products.
The German-headquartered Immatics’ T-cell Engaging Receptors (TCER) are off-the-shelf biologics that leverage the body’s immune system by redirecting and activating T cells towards cancer cells expressing specific tumour targets.
Immatics is active in the discovery and development of T cell-redirecting cancer immunotherapies, that targets cancer patients with high unmet medical need.
T-cells are a type of white blood cell called lymphocytes. They help your immune system fight germs and protect you from disease.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a way to get T cells to fight cancer by changing them in the lab so they can find and destroy cancer cells.
Engineered T-cell receptor therapy equips activated T cells with specific receptors that target their complementary cancer antigens. This greatly enhances the personalisation of treatment and provides a higher potential for positive outcomes for patients.
“This partnership presents a groundbreaking opportunity to leverage our mRNA technology alongside Immatics’ TCR platform, potentially diversifying and augmenting the way we approach cancer treatment,” said Rose Loughlin, Ph.D., Moderna’s Senior Vice President for Research and Early Development.
“We believe this collaboration will accelerate the development of novel oncology therapies and bring us one.”
Moderna will lead the clinical development and commercialization of cancer vaccines and TCER therapeutics resulting from the collaboration.
