A collaboration between IONTAS, a company focused on the discovery and optimisation of fully human antibodies, and IGEM Therapeutics, an immunologist-oncology company, for the identification of novel IgE antibodies for cancer targets.
Collaboration
This project will add to IGEM's pipeline of drugs and expand upon its IgE that targets ovarian and other cancers, IGEM-F, which is currently being evaluated in a Phase I/IIa study. Additionally, IONTAS will use its proprietary antibody discovery technology to help IGEM identify novel IgE antibodies against two targets.
"This collaboration capitalises on the antibody discovery capabilities at IONTAS which enable the generation of high-quality therapeutic antibodies using phage-display or mammalian-display," commented John McCafferty, CEO at IONTAS. "We maintain a strong interest in developing novel therapeutic approaches and recognise IgE therapeutics as an important addition to the armoury of novel cancer therapies. We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with fellow innovators at IGEM on these two exciting projects."
"IONTAS was selected as our development partner of choice because of their extensive experience and track record in delivering therapeutic antibodies," added Tim Wilson, CEO at IGEM. "The combination of the IGEM IgE platform and the discovery capability of IONTAS will rapidly expand our portfolio of antibodies and help meet our ambitions to progress new leads into the clinic."
IgE antibodies have been shown to permeate tumour tissue more effectively, exhibit enhanced effector functions and stimulate significantly greater levels of cytotoxicity and phagocytosis than IgG antibodies. IONTAS will apply its proprietary antibody discovery libraries and technologies to identify specific, high-affinity antibodies against two tumour-associated targets. Functional screening of IgE-formatted antibodies will be carried out to identify the most appropriate candidates for therapeutic development.