Amgen Backed Immatics Rounds Up $58M in Series E
German Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH which partnered with Amgen earlier this year to develop T cell engaging bispecific immunotherapies to treat cancer has now raised $58 million in a series E round. Existing investors dievini Hopp BioTech holding GmbH & Co. KG, Wellington Partners and AT Impf participated in the round, as did new investor Amgen.
Immatics and Amgen signed a $1.3 billion cancer deal in January, with a view to using Immatics’ XPRESIDENT target discovery and T-cell receptor (TCR) capabilities and Amgen’s validated Bispecific T-cell Engager (BiTE) technology to create novel oncology drugs.
The company said that it will use the proceeds to progress its pipeline of adoptive cell therapies in a series of clinical trials including the candidates IMA101 and IMA201, based on transducing a patient’s own T-cells to express a tumor-specific exogenous T-cell receptor (TCR) and redirecting activated T-cells to the tumor sites. Furthermore, immatics will invest into the development of its pipeline of bispecific TCR candidates, with the aim to redirect and activate the T-cell response towards cancer cells expressing specific tumor targets. Both approaches will be triggered by identification of new targets (=neoantigens) with Immatics’ XPRESIDENT platform.
Founded in 2010, Immatics uses a platform
tech dubbed Xpresident to identify the targets on cancer cells they want to zero in on. One of their leading programs is for IMA101, expanding specific endogenous T cells, which set out in Phase I in August. Just a few days ago, their close collaborators at MD Anderson launched a Phase I study of IMA201, Immatics’ TCR candidate that reengineers T cells to express an exogenous receptor — the adoptive cell therapy approach that has become famous in the wake of the first CAR-T approval.“During the period covered by this financing we expect to receive initial patient data from the current Immatics’ IMA101 and IMA201 adoptive cell therapy clinical trials, as well as commencing trials of further ACTengine candidates,” Immatics chairman Peter Chambré said in a statement.
“We also expect to demonstrate proof of principle for our novel bispecific TCR candidates that, we believe, have significant potential in this emerging field. Immatics’ adoptive cell therapies and bispecific TCR candidates are tailored to address cancer targets identified and validated using XPRESIDENT.”
