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news.Biotechnology firm Neogene Therapeutics has signed an exclusive, global license agreement with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for a portfolio of T cell receptor (TCRs) targeting KRAS and TP53 mutations for the treatment of patients suffering with cancer.
Neogene plans to evaluate both autologous and allogeneic T cell therapies targeting neoantigens in a broad spectrum of solid cancer. Credit: Arek Socha from Pixabay
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The laboratory of Steven Rosenberg, chief of surgery at the NCI, discovered these TCRs.
NCI is an institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Neogene’s neoantigen TCR discovery and T cell engineering platform complements this portfolio of TP53 and KRAS targeted T cell therapies.
Neogene’s platform intends to identify neoantigens and TCRs that can target individual patients and allow the engineering of T cells with these neoantigen-particular TCRs for patients with a wide range of solid tumors.
Neogene Therapeutics chief medical officer Raphaël Rousseau said: “TP53 and KRAS are among the most commonly mutated genes in cancer, however, very few therapies specifically targeting these mutations are currently available, and there is a high unmet need for effective treatment options.”
“We’re excited to have entered into this agreement with the NIH to expand our current development program and address this need through the development of TCR-engineered T cell therapies for patients with tumours that harbour these common mutations.”
Neogene has been given global rights to develop, manufacture and commercialise this TCR portfolio of autologous and allogeneic T cell therapy product candidates.
These candidates are engineered with CRISPR technology to treat or prevent cancer.
Neogene Therapeutics president, CEO, co-founder Carsten Linnemann said: “Adding these TCRs to our pipeline will enable Neogene to flexibly develop them alone or in combination with individualized neoantigen TCR cell therapies, providing us with the opportunity to diversify our pipeline and potentially target multiple neoantigens in individual patients.
“This is a strategic step toward strengthening Neogene’s breadth and position as a global leader in the development of TCR therapies for the treatment of solid cancers.”
Neogene, pursuant to the terms of the license deal, will offer an upfront payment and certain clinical, regulatory, and sales milestone payments, besides royalties on net sales of products covered under the license.
