In the treatment of solid tumors, although the design should have been effective, T cell participants failed to achieve their goals due to dangerous toxicity in healthy tissues.Drug research has advanced several different methods to improve the safety and effectiveness of this drug category. Sanofi is Commitment of 1 billion U.S. dollars Acquiring Amunix, betting on pre-clinical biotechnology can overcome barriers that prevent T cell participants from gaining wider adoption.
One billion dollars is an advance payment. If the development milestones are achieved, Amunix, headquartered in Mountain View, California, can earn up to $225 million in revenue. Through this transaction, Amunix’s five drug candidates will join the Sanofi cancer drug pipeline. The pharmaceutical giant said that the pipeline currently has about 20 molecules under development. But the technology that supports Amunix drugs is very important to Sanofi, and even more important.
Bispecific T cell conjugates are antibodies that bind to two targets, one on the T cell and the other on the cancer cell. The physical connection between T cells and cancer cells stimulates immune activity that kills tumors. Amgen’s blinatumomab, sold under the name Blincyto, is currently the only commercially available T cell cement and has been approved by the FDA to cover the use of this drug in the treatment of certain types of leukemia. However, the black box warning on the drug label warns that the drug may cause problems including cytokine release syndrome and potentially life-threatening toxic effects on the brain.
Amunix aims to avoid the toxic effects of T cell participants by “masking” the treatment until the goal is reached. According to the biotech company, these masks allow biomedicine to circulate in the body without being detected, and only work on the part of a specific disease. These drugs are carefully designed to remain in an inactive state for a long time; Amunix said that when these molecules are activated, these molecules will be converted into half-life drugs, which can kill cancer, and then be quickly eliminated from the body. Amunix believes that these features can overcome the toxicity problems that prevent the use of bispecific antibodies to treat solid tumors.
The most advanced Amunix drug candidate, AMX-818, is a masking T cell cement that targets the cancer protein HER2. It is being developed to address a series of solid tumors that express this goal. The drug is currently undergoing preclinical research and can support the submission of an investigational new drug application.
After acquiring Amunix, Sanofi became the latest large-scale pharmaceutical company to reach an agreement with a smaller biotechnology company to acquire new T cell participation technology. last week, Bristol-Myers Squibb agreed to pay $150 million in advance for the right to purchase Immatics’ lead drug project, which is a phase 1 ready “T cell participation receptor” It aims to recruit T cells to recognize and destroy cancer cells.
Earlier this year, Takeda Pharmaceuticals acquired Maverick Therapeutics, a research partner of T cells involved in the past four years. Maverick’s main project is for solid tumors expressing the protein EGFR.Merck is chasing Better T cell participation through alliance with Janux TherapeuticsBiotech companies that went public in June, improve More than 193 million US dollars. Janux has stated that it plans to submit an investigational new drug application for its most advanced project in the first half of 2022. Both Maverick and Janux stated that their respective technologies enable T cell participants to circulate in the body, but only activate cancer at the site.
Founded in 2006, Amunix has spent most of its history supporting drug research in large companies. Merck and Roche are among the companies that have licensed the Amunix technology. Sanofi also signed a license agreement with Amunix, but not for anticancer drugs. The Amunix technology is part of efanesoctocog alfa, an experimental treatment developed in the later stages of Sanofi’s hemophilia A. Amunix’s XTEN technology extends the duration of biological therapy in the circulation.
When announcing the acquisition of Amunix on Tuesday, Sanofi stated that XTEN can be applied to a range of existing and experimental drugs. In addition to increasing the participation of T cells, Amunix has also applied its technology to treat cytokines and signal proteins that regulate immune responses. The use of cytokine therapy is limited by its toxicity, but Amunix said its technology can be used to preferentially activate cytokines in the tumor microenvironment. The company’s most advanced cytokine program focuses on the cytokine interleukin 12.
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