On August 6, 2020 Immatics N.V. (NASDAQ: IMTX; "Immatics"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company active in the discovery and development of T cell redirecting cancer immunotherapies, reported the extension of its cell therapy manufacturing collaboration with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), in Houston, Texas (Press release, Immatics Biotechnologies, AUG 6, 2020, View Source [SID1234569554]). The continued collaboration grants Immatics access to UTHealth’s state-of-the-art cGMP manufacturing infrastructure at the Evelyn H. Griffin Stem Cell Therapeutics Research Laboratory, enabling continued production and supply of Immatics’ specialized, cell-based product candidates for testing in multiple clinical trials. Maximum capacity of the facility is anticipated at 48 ACTengine T cell products per month. The new agreement will run until the end of 2024. Under the agreement, UTHealth will provide Immatics with exclusive access to three cGMP suites and support areas for the manufacturing of various Adoptive Cell Therapy (ACT) products. Therapeutic T cell production will be carried out by Immatics’ manufacturing personnel and will be supported by a UTHealth-Immatics joint quality team.
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Steffen Walter, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer at Immatics, commented: "During the last five years, we have established a strong and productive partnership with UTHealth that has enabled the initiation of four ongoing clinical trials. As we remain focused on the development of our clinical pipeline, this extension of our collaboration with UTHealth will fulfill Immatics’ manufacturing needs for our early-stage ACT clinical programs for the next four years. Being able to rely on a partner with profound cell therapy expertise who is familiar with our technologies and can support cGMP cell therapy production is critical to ensuring the advancement of our clinical trials. We look forward to continuing this fruitful collaboration with the experts at UTHealth."
Fabio Triolo, D.d.R., M.Phil., Ph.D., The Clare A. Glassell Distinguished Chair and Director of the Cellular Therapy Core at UTHealth, added: "Signing the extended contract with Immatics fits into our strategy at UTHealth of supporting the development of new treatments for patients in need. We therefore look forward to continuing our collaboration and further leveraging the potential of our manufacturing capabilities."
About Immatics’ ACT Programs
ACTengine is a personalized approach in which the patient’s own T cells are genetically modified to express a novel proprietary TCR cognate to one of Immatics’ proprietary cancer targets which are then reinfused back into the patient. Immatics’ latest proprietary ACTengine manufacturing processes are designed to generate cell product candidates within a short six day manufacturing window and to deliver highly proliferative T cells, with the capability to infiltrate the patient’s tumor and function in a challenging solid tumor microenvironment. The process is designed to rapidly produce younger, better-persisting T cells capable of "serial" killing tumor cells in vitro. Immatics’ is further advancing the ACT concept beyond individualized manufacturing with its product class ACTallo which is being developed to generate "off-the-shelf" cellular therapies.