Egle Therapeutics enters into a corporate strategic research alliance with Takeda for development of unique immunotherapies

Egle Therapeutics announces a landmark strategic research alliance with Japan's largest pharmaceutical company, Takeda. Founded in 2020, the start-up results from Eliane Piaggio’s research work, Inserm Research Director & Head of the Translational Immunotherapy Team at Institut Curie, and Luc Boblet, a serial entrepreneur in the field of biotechnology. Egle Therapeutics is the latest spin-out to be created and supported by Institut Curie.

An alliance at the service of innovation in immunotherapy

As it is just beginning to develop, Egle Therapeutics has targeted the right partner to advance its innovative immunotherapy project. The young company was recently formed with a pioneering idea in immunotherapy : the targeting of regulatory T cells (Tregs), cells that infiltrate tumours and cause immune suppression.

• Its field of action? The development of first-class anti-Tregs immunotherapies for oncology and autoimmune diseases.
• Its mode of action? Leveraging its proprietary translation-based target discovery engine. This engine uses patient samples to map unique transcriptomic signatures and specific targets for Tregs sub-populations.
• Its flagship program? The building of a unique pipeline of Tregs modulatory drugs that includes a series of patented variants of IL-2 (molecules that act as Tregs antagonists).

The objective of this collaboration is to validate novel tumor-invasive Tregs targets, against which Takeda will develop potential therapies, and to accelerate the preclinical development of IL-2 variants.

This partnership will be a key milestone for Egle Therapeutics, as rejoiced by Eliane Piaggio :

This alliance is in line with the launch plan of our young start-up, which we wanted to have a strategic pharmaceutical partner at an early stage. This is a very promising launch that bodes well for bringing the fruits of our innovation to the bedside of patients who need it most.

This alliance is also indicative of the ambitious strategy of the Institut Curie, whose policy of supporting and creating start-ups is flourishing, as explains Amaury Martin, Director of Industrial Development and Partnerships at Institut Curie and Director of the Carnot Curie Cancer Institute :

We are delighted with the agreement signed between Takeda and Egle Therapeutics, the latest start-up supported in its creation by Institut Curie. This agreement confirms the relevance of the strategy deployed, since 2016, to strengthen the identification of start-up projects and their support - with the aim of accelerating technology transfer resulting from the work of Research Units. The contribution of the Carnot label has been decisive at all stages.