Institut Curie & Biomunex pursue strategic collaboration for development of disruptive non-conventional T cell redirection approach to treating cancer
The immune cell redirection approach has led to significant advances in cancer immunotherapy. More than 80 bispecific antibodies based on this approach are currently in development, most using CD3-based T-cell redirection. This promising technique is widely studied as it can be applied to a wide variety of cancer types. However, this approach still has many limitations, such as cytokine release syndrome, one of the major side effects of this therapy, dose-limiting toxicity[1] and minimal clinical activity in solid tumors.
In recent years, Biomunex and Institut Curie have signed two partnerships to overcome those limitations. They evaluated the potential of a unique sub-population of non-conventional T Cells to be redirected to kill cancer cells, based on the Biomunex’ unique bi- and multi-specific antibody technology platform, BiXAb. The ‘Plug-and-Play’ BiXAb technology platform paves the way for safer and more efficacious disruptive immunotherapeutics.
This collaboration between Biomunex, the Cancer immunotherapy center (Institut Curie, Inserm) led by Sebastian Amigorena, and Institut Curie’s Clinical immunology laboratory led by Dr. Olivier Lantz, resulted in the highlighting of a novel unique therapeutic approach. This led to the international filing of a patent application, covering the first development candidate but also BiXAbs recognizing any other tumor associated antigen, enabling the extension of the approach to many hematological malignancies and solid tumors. The continuation of the collaboration will allow Biomunex and Institut Curie to better understand the first drug candidate mechanism of action, with the objective of entering clinical development within the next 24 months.
Pierre-Emmanuel Gerard, CEO and founder of Biomunex, said:
Our next generation BiXAb platform and expert know-how in anticancer immunotherapy, together with the expertise in T cell biology of the Institut Curie team, provide great synergistic opportunities in the development of innovative anticancer immunotherapeutics for patients. We are thrilled to pursue this historical collaboration with Institut Curie using our BiXAb platform, to discover new immunotherapies in oncology.
“Biomunex’ best-in-class platform will certainly allow us to uncover the full potential of this non-conventional T cell redirection approach and translate it into new immunotherapeutic treatments. The results of the in vitro and in vivo experiments so far have demonstrated the high potential and brought the Proof of Concept of this novel T cell redirection approach. This is an important step in the progression of innovative cancer treatments for patients with unmet medical needs.
said Sebastian Amigorena and Dr Olivier Lantz.
The disruptive innovation brought by this unique non-conventional T Cell redirection approach was also demonstrated as this received close to €3 million ($3.5M) in grants from the French government as part of the ‘Grand Défi Biomédicament’ scheme, which was the most significant grant awarded under the scheme in November 2021.
[1] The dose of a drug induces significant toxicities that limit the increase in dosage in a patient.
