GSK teams up with Oxford biotech on cancer
pharmafile | July 9, 2013 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | GSK, Oxford, immunocore
GlaxoSmithKline has announced a partnership with a UK biotech firm to develop oncology medicines using new methods to fight the disease.
The deal is with Immunocore, the Oxford-based company developing biological drugs called ImmTACs to treat cancer and viral disease for multiple targets not addressable using antibody-based technologies.
This is Immunocore’s second major partnership this year after teaming up with Roche in June for a similar project. Under the terms of the agreement, Immunocore will receive up to a total of £142 million in pre-clinical milestone payments across the targets.
In addition, for each product that reaches the market, up to £200 million is due to Immunocore in development and commercial milestone payments, plus up to double digit royalties.
Immunocore will be responsible for all of the pre-clinical development and for the initial clinical trials in patients. GSK will be responsible for the remaining development and commercialisation of the products.
Immunocore has created a platform of bi-specific biological drugs, called ImmTACs (Immune mobilising mTCR Against Cancer), which exploit the power of T Cell Receptors (TCRs) to recognise intracellular changes that occur during cancer or viral infection.
This helps sets them apart from traditional antibody-based therapies, which can only recognise changes on the surface of cells, and provides the ability to develop targeted therapies for cancers that are currently poorly served.
The most advanced ImmTAC drug, IMCgp100 for the treatment of melanoma, which is currently in Phase I/II clinical trials in the UK and US.
This will dovetail will GSK’s melanoma drugs dabrafenib, a BRAF inhibitor and trametinib, a MEK inhibitor. Both received positive opinions from the CHMP last month, and just today GSK announced it has submitted a new application to the FDA for both drugs to be used in combination.
James Noble, chief executive of Immunocore, said: “We are delighted to collaborate with GSK, our second major partnership signed this year. GSK is a leading pharmaceutical company with a proven track record in the development of biotherapeutics and this is an important partnership for Immunocore.”
Laurent Jespers, VP and head of innovation BDU, Biopharm R&D of GSK, said: “We are very excited about the opportunity to work together with Immunocore to develop ImmTACs. We believe ImmTACs offer a tremendous opportunity in treating cancer and in other areas where there is a large unmet medical need.”
Ben Adams
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