Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (Biocytogen, HKEX: 02315) announced a strategic collaboration with Guangzhou FineImmune Biotechnology Co., LTD. (FineImmune) to co-develop cell-based therapeutic drugs targeting intracellular tumor-associated antigens.
What are the terms of this partnership?
Biocytogen will use its TCR-mimic antibody platform to discover fully human antibody sequences that will be further developed using FineImmune’s unique cell therapy platform.
TCR-mimic platform utilizes its fully human antibody RenMice (RenMab and RenLite mice) that have been further engineered to express a human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene. Antibodies against intracellular tumor-associated antigens are subjected to advanced high-throughput antibody screening technologies to discover antibodies with high specificity and affinity.
FineImmune is a pioneering T cell therapy company, and has solved multiple critical barriers in the microenvironment of solid tumors by using multiple tech platforms, like GSOP for T-cell engineering, HAP for TCR identification, CMP for personalized TCR-T cell production and in vivo T-cell delivery platform. FineImmune’s products include TCR-T, CAR-T, TAL, TIL, etc.
The firm developed the first personalized neoantigen-specific TCR-T cell therapy, which is in phase I clinical trial now. FineImmune also possesses technologies for the precision prediction of the efficacy and side effects of immunotherapy, enabling healthcare professionals to provide effective and safe immunotherapy to patients with common malignant tumors.
What were the executives’ thoughts on the partnership?
“Most tumor antigens are intracellular, and our platform offers a solution for developing antibodies against such targets,” said Dr. Yuelei Shen, Founder, Chairman & CEO, Biocytogen.
“TCR-mimic antibodies have potentials to be developed into multiple drug modalities like T cell engagers, bispecific/multispecific antibodies and CAR-T therapies. We are pleased to work with FineImmune to explore the application of our antibodies in the field of cell therapies.”
“T cells play an important role in treating cancers. Biocytogen’s advanced TCR-mimic platform makes it possible for us to develop T cell therapies against crucial but low-expressed intracellular tumor antigens,” said Dr. Penghui Zhou, Founder and CTO of FineImmune.
“We focus on providing efficient and safe immunotherapy using advanced technologies. This collaboration will promote the development of new cell therapeutic drugs and the expansion of the potential of immunotherapy to benefit patients,” Dr. Penghui Zhou concluded.
