A Phase I study will investigate the safety and tolerability of Immatics approach to treating solid tumors.
Immatics is a German biopharma based in Tuebingen, which is a leader in the field of cancer immunotherapy. It has announced today the initiation of a Phase I trial that will test the safety and tolerability of its candidate, ACTengine. The therapy is targeted at non-small cell lung cancer or head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, which currently lack a standard of care.
The ACTengine approach is made up of several exciting features. Immatic’s XPRESIDENT high-throughput target discovery platform identifies a tumor antigen to target. A biomarker profile is used to make sure the antigen is present on the patient’s tumor, and if so, the patient’s T cells are engineered to express a T cell receptor (TCR) against the antigen. The T cells are multiplied, activated and infused back into the body where they recognize their target with very high affinity and clear out the tumor.
Immatics joins a busy field, with a number of groups, including Adaptimmune and Immunocore that are investigating TCR-based therapies in particular. The company will hope that the combination of both target-identification and treatment technologies will give it an advantage over others.
Image – CI Photos / shutterstock.com