Multi-year agreement signed focusing on immune tolerance

German biotechnology company, Topas Therapeutics, has signed a multi-year agreement with Eli Lilly and Company, which will see the companies collaborate to generate drug candidates in the field of antigen specific tolerance induction.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly has an option to in-license and further develop all candidates produced as a part of the collaborative work. Topas will receive funding for research and development (R&D) and will also participate in the future success of any compounds in-licensed by Lilly.

Work in this collaboration will use Topas’ technology platform, which induces antigen-specific immune tolerance by harnessing the liver’s natural immunology capabilities — peptide-loaded nanoparticles are selectively targeted towards liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs).

“We are excited to be working with Lilly to generate drug candidates using our proprietary technology,” stated Timm Jessen, CEO of Topas Therapeutics. “We expect this work to support the value of our approach in inducing tolerance also against external antigens. Additionally, the interest from such an important pharmaceutical company in our technology, we believe, supports the strong commercial potential of our work.”

“Lilly is committed to be an innovation leader in immunology. Topas has a very novel approach to immune tolerance induction, which we would like to see successfully applied to certain disease relevant antigens,” added Thomas F. Bumol, PhD, senior vice president of biotechnology and immunology research at Lilly. “We look forward to working together with Topas on their unique platform.”