BioNTech is passing new alliance In partnership with Medigene, the company’s technology enhances the activity of T cells, allowing them to better target and treat tumors.
Medigene’s focus is on developing cell therapies from a patient’s own cells, engineering them with T cell receptors (TCRs) that target cancer cell antigens. Under the agreement announced Tuesday, the Munich, Germany-based company will contribute its TCR discovery platform, which will be used to develop TCRs for multiple BioNTech-nominated solid tumor targets.
In addition, Mainz, Germany-based BioNTech is acquiring a preclinical Medigene TCR, and it has an exclusive option to acquire additional TCRs in the Medigene discovery pipeline. Medigene received an upfront payment of 26 million euros, as well as three-year collaborative research funding.
BioNTech is best known for its Covid-19 messenger RNA vaccine developed with Pfizer, but Cancer is its initial focus — not just mRNA cancer vaccinesThe company’s product line includes CAR T therapy, in which a patient’s T cells are engineered to track specific targets of cancer cells. The state-of-the-art BioNTech CAR T addresses targets found on solid tumors, which could expand the scope of such therapies. So far, CAR T therapy can only treat blood cancers.
BioNTech already has its own technology to discover and validate TCRs. Projects using this technology are still in the preclinical stage. The Medigene alliance presents another opportunity for it to address solid tumors through cell therapy. BioNTech has an exclusive license to Medigene’s “On-Off Receptor” technology, which develops TCRs that overcome the mechanisms that tumors use to evade the killing activity of activated T cells. The preclinical Medigene TCR that BioNTech is acquiring was developed using this switch receptor technology. This TCR targets PRAME, a tumor-associated antigen that is abundantly found in a variety of cancers.
The consortium also granted BioNTech a license to use the Medigene Exact Pairing Library, which allows specific modifications to the alpha and beta chains that make up the TCR so that the chains pair with each other. These changes improved the function of the TCR and its expression on the T cell surface. According to the companies, these licenses make it possible for BioNTech to apply switch receptor technology and precision libraries to all of its cell therapy programs.
Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech, said in a prepared report: “The collaboration with Medigene expands our cell therapy portfolio and TCR discovery capabilities and further enhances our position as a rapidly emerging engineered cell therapy Capabilities of Domain Leaders.” Statement.
Medigene has partnered with 2SeventyBio and Cytovant Sciences, a subsidiary of Roivant Sciences. Projects under both alliances are preclinical. There are other biotech companies aiming to develop TCR therapies with the potential to treat solid tumors. Another German company, Immatics Biotechnologies in Tübingen, is working with Bristol Myers Squibb to develop the TCR. Alliances that start with CelgeneAcquired by BMS in 2019.At the end of last year, BMS paid $150 million in advance on the basis of cooperation Rights to off-the-shelf Immatics biopharmaceuticals that combine TCR with a second domain that recruits and activates T cells.
Under its Medigene alliance, BioNTech is responsible for the global development of the TCR therapeutics resulting from the agreement. BioNTech will have exclusive commercialization rights for these therapies. The number of treatments covered by the agreement has not been disclosed, but Medigene is expected to receive milestone payments of up to several million euros per program, as well as option payments and royalties.
Medigene explains its TCR technology in the following company video:
