Cancer Research UK and immatics Biotechnologies to trial vaccine for brain cancer
London, February 16th, 2010 ---CANCER RESEARCH UK and Cancer Research Technology - the charity's development and commercialisation arm - have reached a collaboration agreement with immatics biotechnologies to trial their new treatment vaccine, IMA950, for glioblastoma multiforme (GMB), one of the most common forms of brain cancer*.
IMA950 is the fifth treatment to enter Cancer Research UK's Clinical Development Partnerships (CDP) scheme and the second one to be completed this year**. The CDP programme allows companies to retain the rights to their treatment while enabling the charity to take on its early development work to assess if there is a potential benefit to cancer patients. This is the first treatment vaccine to enter the CDP programme.
IMA950 contains 11 peptides linked to glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive form of glioma. These peptides encourage the T cells in the immune system to recognise cancer cells and destroy them. In a phase I clinical trial that will open in the next year, up to 45 patients who have been newly diagnosed with this form of glioma will receive a number of doses of the vaccine, alongside routine surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments.
The trial, will take place at four hospitals*** across the UK through Cancer Research UK’s Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre network and it will be managed by the charity’s Drug Development Office (DDO).
Under the terms of the partnership, Cancer Research UK will fund the trial. immatics Biotechnologies will then have an option to further develop and commercialise the drug in exchange for future payments to the charity. If they elect not to, the rights will be given to CRT to secure an alternative partner.
Dr Ian Walker, licensing manager at CRT, said: "We're delighted to have formed this agreement with immatics Biotechnologies. Following rigorous peer-review of the scientific data, Cancer Research UK’s scientific committee decided that the potential of the vaccine should be investigated further and we are very pleased that the company sought the expertise of the charity to develop a potential new treatment.”
Paul Higham, CEO of immatics said: “Cancer Research UK is a world-renowned cancer research organisation and we are delighted that through this collaboration we will be able to efficiently move our third therapeutic cancer vaccine into the clinic, highlighting the wide applicability and productivity of our technology platform.”
Professor Roy Rampling, who will lead the study at Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre at the University of Glasgow, said: “The clinical trial will aim to find out if this vaccine targets and stimulates the patient’s immune system to fight the cancer.
Although we’re still planning the trial and are not ready to recruit patients yet, it’s exciting to be working on a possible new way to treat glioma.”
Dr Victoria John, head of clinical partnerships at Cancer Research UK’s Drug Development Office, said: “We’re very pleased to be taking on the next stage of this vaccine’s development. This form of glioma is very difficult to treat successfully and we hope this trial will help to establish if the vaccine might offer another viable treatment option for people with this type of cancer.”
ENDS
For media enquiries, please contact Emma Rigby in the Cancer Research UK press office on 020 7061 8318 or, out of hours, the duty press officer on 07050 264 059.
Notes to Editors:
* Glioblastoma multiforme is an advanced type of glioma. More than 2,000 glioblastoma multiforme tumours are diagnosed in the UK each year.
You can find out more about glioma and other cancers from Cancer Research UK patient information website CancerHelp UK: www.cancerhelp.org.uk
**About Cancer Research UK’s CDP programme
The Clinical Development Partnerships programme was launched in 2006 to increase the number of new treatments for cancer patients by taking reprioritised agents from industry and putting them into clinical trials.
Following the first deal in 2008, one of these drugs is soon to enter a clinical trial, two are in the late stages of pre-clinical development and a fourth agreement was announced ... More information about the programme can be found at: www.clinicalpartnerships.com
***This trial is not open to recruitment. When it is open, more information will be available on Cancer Research UK’s patient information website CancerHelp UK: www.cancerhelp.org.uk
About Cancer Research Technology
Cancer Research Technology Limited (CRT) is a specialist commercialisation and development company, which aims to develop new discoveries in cancer research for the benefit of cancer patients. CRT works closely with leading international cancer scientists and their institutes to protect intellectual property arising from their research and to establish links with commercial partners. CRT facilitates the discovery, development and marketing of new cancer therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics and enabling technologies. CRT is wholly owned by Cancer Research UK, the largest independent funder of cancer research in the world.
About Cancer Research UK’s Drug Development Office
Cancer Research UK’s Drug Development Office has an impressive record of developing novel treatments for cancer. It currently has a portfolio of approximately 40 new anti-cancer agents in preclinical development, phase I or early phase II clinical trials. Since 1982, the Cancer Research UK Drug Development Office has taken over 100 potential new anti-cancer agents into clinical trials in patients, five of which have made it to market and many others are still in development. These include temozolomide, a drug discovered by Cancer Research UK scientists, that is an effective new treatment for brain cancer. Six other drugs are in late development phase III trials. This rate of success is comparable to that of any pharmaceutical company. Further information about the drug development office can be found at: http://science.cancerresearchuk.org/tcr/drugdevelopment/
Cancer Research UK
• Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to beat cancer.
• Cancer Research UK carries out world-class research to improve understanding of the disease and find out how to prevent, diagnose and treat different kinds of cancer.
• Cancer Research UK ensures that its findings are used to improve the lives of all cancer patients.
• Cancer Research UK helps people to understand cancer, the progress that is being made and the choices each person can make.
• Cancer Research UK works in partnership with others to achieve the greatest impact in the global fight against cancer.
For further information about Cancer Research UK's work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 020 7009 8820 or visit www.cancerresearchuk.org.uk.
About the ECMC network
Cancer Research UK and the Departments of Health in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland launched a network of 19 Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres (ECMC) across the UK in April 2007, in a £35 million, five-year investment. Each ECMC brings together lab-based experts in cancer biology with cancer doctors to speed up the flow of ideas from the lab bench to the patient’s bedside. Find out more at: www.ecmcnetwork.org.uk
About immatics
immatics biotechnologies is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing rationally designed therapeutic vaccines that are active against cancer. immatics’ lead product, IMA901, [has completed a Phase II trial in renal cell carcinoma]. immatics’ pipeline also includes IMA910, in Phase II for colorectal cancer, and IMA950 which is being developed for glioma.
immatics’ technology platform rapidly generates defined therapeutic cancer vaccines which are based on multiple tumour-associated peptides (TUMAPs) with the ability to specifically stimulate the immune system against cancer cells. These vaccines – comprising multiple peptides confirmed to be naturally presented by real tumor tissue – offer greater effectiveness than existing cancer vaccine approaches. immatics’ products are ‘drug like’ with stable, off- the-shelf formulations and robust easily scalable manufacturing.
immatics is based in Tuebingen and Munich, Germany, and has raised more than €54 million (US$ 72million) in private equity in two financing rounds.
For additional information on immatics please visit www.immatics.com
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