On January 7, 2019 Immutep Limited (ASX: IMM; NASDAQ: IMMP) ("Immutep" or "the Company"), is reported that it has entered into a clinical trial collaboration agreement, a supply agreement and a service agreement with CYTLIMIC Inc. (the "Agreements") for its lead product candidate eftilagimod alpha as part of a cancer vaccine (Press release, Immutep, JAN 7, 2019, View Source [SID1234532573]).
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The agreements enable the two parties to collaborate on clinical trials to evaluate efti as part of a therapeutic cancer vaccine (a therapy containing cancer antigens to boost a patient’s own immune cells to recognize and kill cancer cells related to the antigens) containing CYTLIMIC’s innovative cancer peptide vaccine, called CYT001.
The trials will be conducted by and are under the control of CYTLIMIC who will fully fund all development costs.
Under the collaboration agreement, Immutep will receive an upfront payment of US$500,000 and is eligible to receive up to US$4.5M in milestone payments upon the achievement of milestones by CYTLIMIC.
This therapeutic cancer vaccine with efti is the third example wherein efti is being evaluated in clinical studies in a combination.
Immutep retains complete exclusivity over its patent rights specifically covering its own clinical development programs and those it is conducting in conjunction with its other collaboration partners evaluating IMP321 in combination with either chemotherapy (AIPAC trial) or PD-1 / PD-L1 immunotherapy (INSIGHT and TACTI trials).
In addition to the collaboration agreement, Immutep has entered into a supply agreement to provide efti to CYTLIMIC for the manufacture of CYT001 for use in the clinical development and commercialisation of the vaccine. The Parties have also entered into a service agreement where Immutep will provide technical support services to CYTLIMIC during the development and commercialisation of CYT001.
Commenting on the Agreements, Immutep CEO Marc Voigt said: "We are very excited to be working alongside CYTLIMIC to help evaluate efti as part of an innovative cancer vaccine that has potential as a new therapy. Efti is generating interest globally. Following the agreements with CYTLIMIC, it is now being evaluated as part of three different combination therapy types: as part of a therapeutic cancer vaccine, as a chemo-immunotherapy and in an IO combination, showing its broad therapeutic potential."
Commenting on the collaboration, CYTLIMIC President and CEO, Shun Doi, Ph.D. said: "We are delighted with the engagement with Immutep, which will strongly help realize an innovative cancer vaccine-immunotherapy. Our own studies have shown that the combination of LAG-3Ig and Poly IC synergistically boost the efficacy of peptide vaccine, and thus I believe the combination of efti in our vaccine CYT001, which is also unique as an application of artificial intelligence, is an important step to add a new solution in cancer immunotherapy world."