Immunology and Biotherapies

MARSEILLE, France, April 16, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Innate Pharma SA (the "Company" - Euronext Paris: FR0010331421 - IPH), the innate immunity company developing first-in-class therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases, today announced that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with Sanofi to apply Innate Pharma's site-specific conjugation technology to the development of new Antibody Drug Conjugates ("ADC").

Innate Pharma’s innovative coupling technology uses bacterial transglutaminase (BTG) enzyme. It aims to address the heterogeneity of the coupling between the antibody and the drug of interest, heterogeneity that affects the therapeutic efficacy of antibody conjugates. With this technology, a single point mutation in the antibody’s heavy chain generates either two or four enzyme-recognition sites, and linkers have been optimized to couple quantitatively at these positions.

 

The process results in homogeneous ADCs with a drug-to-antibody ratio of exactly 2:1 or 4:1 in a robust and time-efficient manner. The coupling is site-specific with minimal antibody scaffold modification, therefore only adding two steps in an already well-established manufacturing procedure widely accepted by regulators.

Innate’s technology helps to generate homogeneous ADCs in 2 steps with an exact antibody / toxin ratio

 

Via Krishan Maggon

Highlights

 

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Innate immune cells, specifically NK cells and macrophages, play an important role in tumor clearance by antitumor antibodies.

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Co-stimulatory and checkpoint blockade antibodies can augment the effector functions of innate immune cells.

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The combination of antibodies targeting innate effectors with tumor-targeted antibodies offers a promising new paradigm for cancer therapy.

 

Cancer immunotherapy is a rapidly evolving field that offers a novel paradigm for cancer treatment: therapies focus on enhancing the immune system's innate and adaptive anti-tumor response. Early immunotherapeutics have achieved impressive clinical outcomes and monoclonal antibodies are now integral to therapeutic strategies in a variety of cancers. However, only recently have antibodies targeting innate immune cells entered clinical development. Innate immune effector cells play important roles in generating and maintaining antitumor immunity. Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) and antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP) are important innate immune mechanisms for tumor eradication. These cytolytic processes are initiated by the detection of a tumor-targeting antibody and can be augmented by activating co-stimulatory pathways or blocking inhibitory signals on innate immune cells. The combination of FDA-approved monoclonal antibodies with innate effector-targeting antibodies has demonstrated potent preclinical therapeutic synergy and early-phase combinatorial clinical trials are ongoing.

Via Krishan Maggon , Gilbert C FAURE