BioNTech, Medigene to Advance T Cell Receptor Immunotherapies Against Cancer

 

• Collaboration leverages BioNTech’s multi-platform immunotherapy capabilities and Medigene’s T cell receptor (TCR) discovery platform to discover and develop innovative TCR immunotherapies against targets selected by BioNTech
• BioNTech to acquire preclinical PRAME TCR and receive licenses to Medigene’s PD1-41BB switch receptor and precision pairing technologies
• BioNTech will hold exclusive worldwide development and commercialization rights to all TCR therapies arising from the collaboration
• Medigene will receive EUR 26 million upfront from BioNTech, as well as research funding, and will be eligible to receive development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments in addition to royalties and tiered deferred option payments on global net sales

BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX, “BioNTech”) and Medigene AG (FSE: MDG1, Prime Standard, “Medigene”), a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company focusing on the development of T cell immunotherapies, today announced that they have entered a multi-target research collaboration to develop T cell receptor (TCR) based immunotherapies against cancer. The initial term of the collaboration is three years.

Medigene will contribute its proprietary TCR discovery platform for the development of TCRs against multiple solid tumor targets nominated by BioNTech. Medigene’s automated, high throughput TCR discovery platform is designed to bypass central tolerance to yield high affinity TCRs. T cell therapy has become a disruptive medical innovation in the treatment of patients with cancer. Engineered TCR-modified T cells (TCR-T cells) are reprogrammed to express a TCR that can recognize specific antigens only present on tumor cells, thereby enabling a precise and potent immune response to attack a patient’s tumor.

“This collaboration with Medigene expands our cell therapy portfolio and TCR discovery capabilities, and further strengthens our ability to be a leader in the rapidly emerging field of engineered cell therapies,” said Ugur Sahin, M.D., Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of BioNTech. “We look forward to working closely with Medigene to develop new treatments which address solid tumors with high unmet medical need.”

https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/biontech-and-medigene-announce-global-collaboration-to-advance-t-cell-receptor-immunotherapies-against-cancer/