(Oxford, UK, 2 October 2013) Immunocore Limited, the Oxford-based biotechnology company developing novel biological drugs to treat cancer and viral disease, has won the Best Biotech Dealmaker Award of 2013 at the OBN (Oxfordshire Bioscience Network) annual awards.
The prestigious industry award recognizes Immunocore’s achievements in closing two major partnership agreements this summer with Genentech, a member of Roche Group, and GlaxoSmithKline to discover, develop and commercialise ImmTAC therapies against multiple targets.
This is the second award received by Immunocore in a matter of weeks and follows the company’s listing in the Fierce Biotech top 15 private biotech firms globally.
The judges commented on Immunocore’s success in securing these multi-target partnerships with GSK and with Genentech. Each partnership involves several target programmes, each of which could result in over £200 million in development and commercial milestones plus significant royalties.
Immuncore’s world-leading platform of bi-specific biological drugs, called ImmTACs (Immune mobilising mTCR Against Cancer), exploit the power of T Cell Receptors (TCRs) to recognise intracellular changes that occur during cancer or viral infection. This unique recognition ability of TCRs sets them apart from traditional antibody-based therapies that can only recognise changes on the surface of cells, and provides, for the first time, the ability to develop extremely potent targeted therapies for cancers that are poorly served. A particular feature is that the ImmTACs can be directed to target and destroy only the cancerous cells, avoiding damage to healthy cells.
The most advanced ImmTAC drug, IMCgp100 for the treatment of melanoma, is in Phase I/II clinical trials in the UK and USA.
James Noble, Chief Executive Officer of Immunocore, commented: “We are delighted to win the Best Biotech Dealmaker Award against strong competition. This accolade recognizes the hard work of our highly skilled team in developing our technology and in executing two significant partnership agreements, enabling us to collaborate with world-leading pharma companies to develop new treatments for cancers.”
The OBN annual awards celebrate the achievements and major success stories in the UK bioscience sector in raising funds, executing deals and supporting innovation. A complete list of award winners is available at: www.obn.org.uk
Contact
Margaret Henry
PR Consultant
Immunocore Ltd, UK
T: + 44 (0) 1865 261491
M: + 44 (0) 7771 377363
E: m.henry@oxin.co.uk
About Immunocore
Founded in 2008, Immunocore Ltd is a privately owned, clinical-stage, biotechnology company developing a highly innovative platform technology that generates novel drugs called ImmTACs for the treatment of cancer and viral infection. Immunocore traces its roots to Avidex Ltd, founded in 1999 as a spin-out from the University of Oxford to develop novel T Cell Receptor technology invented by the founder and chief scientist, Dr Bent Jakobsen. The Company has about 70 staff and is located in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
Immunocore has major discovery collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies Genentech and GlaxoSmithKline.
About ImmTACs
Immunocore’s ImmTAC (Immune mobilising mTCR Against Cancer) technology enables the immune system to recognise and kill cancer or viral cells.
T Cell Receptors naturally recognise diseased cells and Immunocore’s competitive advantage is its ability to engineer high affinity T Cell Receptors and link them to an antibody fragment, anti-CD3, which can activate the immune system to kill the targeted cancer or viral cells. These bi-specific proteins, called ImmTACS, have the potential to be extremely potent anti-cancer or anti-viral agents.
Immunocore has completed development of the ImmTAC technology, including the generation of a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) compliant, fully scalable manufacture route. The company has also established regulatory pathways approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) that will form the basis of all future ImmTAC programmes.
The most advanced ImmTAC drug, IMCgp100, is currently in clinical trials in melanoma patients in both the US and UK. For more information: www.immunocore.com
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