On June 2, 2022 Immatics N.V. (NASDAQ: IMTX, "Immatics"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company active in the discovery and development of T cell-redirecting cancer immunotherapies, and Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), reported that they have expanded their strategic alliance to pursue the development of multiple allogeneic off-the-shelf TCR-T and/or CAR-T programs (Press release, Bristol-Myers Squibb, JUN 2, 2022, View Source [SID1234615405]).
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
Under this collaboration, Bristol Myers Squibb and Immatics will develop two programs owned by Bristol Myers Squibb and both companies have an option to develop up to four additional programs each. The programs will utilize Immatics’ proprietary gamma delta T cell-derived, allogeneic Adoptive Cell Therapy (ACT) platform, called ACTallo, and a suite of next-generation technologies developed by Bristol Myers Squibb.
Under the terms of this agreement, Immatics will receive an upfront payment of $60 million as well as up to $700 million per Bristol Myers Squibb program through development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments and tiered royalty payments of up to low double-digit percentages on net product sales. Immatics will be responsible for preclinical development of the initial two Bristol Myers Squibb-owned programs and will receive additional payment for certain activities that Immatics could perform at Bristol Myers Squibb’s request. Bristol Myers Squibb will assume responsibility for clinical development and commercialization activities of all Bristol Myers Squibb-owned programs thereafter.
In addition, Bristol Myers Squibb and Immatics will expand their 2019 collaboration agreement focused on autologous T cell receptor-based therapy (TCR-T), with the inclusion of one additional TCR target discovered by Immatics. As part of this expansion, Immatics will receive an upfront payment of $20 million and be eligible for milestone payments and royalties.
"The expansion of our collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb significantly advances our allogeneic cell therapy development strategy," commented Harpreet Singh, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Immatics. "We welcome opening another chapter of our work with a trusted partner and the expertise and capabilities both companies provide in cell therapy development to create novel medicines for cancer patients."
"Today’s announcement represents an important part of our continued investment in next generation cell therapies that have the potential to provide transformative outcomes to patients with cancer," said Rupert Vessey, M.A., B.M., B.Ch., FRCP, D.Phil., Executive Vice President, Research & Early Development, Bristol Myers Squibb. "We are excited to expand our collaboration with Immatics that allows us to combine their novel off-the-shelf platforms with our industry-leading research and manufacturing expertise in cell therapy to develop new allogeneic cell therapy treatments to potentially help patients with solid tumor malignancies."
About ACTallo
ACTallo is Immatics’ proprietary allogeneic, off-the-shelf adoptive cell therapy platform based on gamma delta T cells sourced from healthy donors. Our manufacturing process is designed to create hundreds of doses from one single donor leukapheresis. Gamma delta T cells are abundant in the peripheral blood, show intrinsic anti-tumor activity, naturally infiltrate solid tumors and do not cause graft-vs-host disease – characteristics that make this cell type well suited for an allogeneic approach. The ACTallo process engineers gamma delta T cells with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) or T cell receptors (TCRs), thus accessing cancer cell surface targets as well as intracellular proteins that are presented as peptides on the surface of the cancer cell. This enables the redirection of gamma delta T cells to cancer cell targets. ACTallo products will be available for patient treatment without the requirement for personalized manufacturing. Since these T cells originate from healthy individuals, they are not reliant on the potentially encumbered immune system of the cancer patient.