Immunocore is a clinical-stage biotech company focused on the development of novel T cell receptor-based drugs to treat cancers and viral diseases. Immunocore is the world-leader in engineering T Cell Receptors (TCRs) and link them to an antibody fragment (scFv). Its first product candidate, IMCgp100, entered clinical trials in patients with metastatic melanoma.
Immunocore – T cell receptor-based drugs
T Cell Receptors naturally recognize cancerous or infected cells. Immunocore’s competitive advantage is its ability to engineer high affinity T Cell Receptors and link them to an anti-CD3 antibody fragment, which is able to activate the immune system to kill the targeted cells. These bifunctional molecules, called ImmTACS, have a huge potential as anti-viral or anti-cancer agents and in immunotherapy. 12 years of R&D were necessary to create Immunocore’s ImmTAC technology, a robust platform delivering picomolar potency, stable, easily manufactured drugs. ImmTACs (Immune mobilising mTCR Against Cancer) combine high-affinity monoclonal T cell receptor (mTCR) targeting technology with a clinically-validated, highly potent therapeutic mechanism of action. The TCR moiety targets disease-specific HLA-peptides with extremely high affinity.
IMCgp100 is an immunotherapeutic for the treatment of malignant melanoma, redirecting T-cells to kill melanoma tumour cells. IMCgp100 is Immunocore’s first ImmTAC to enter clinical trials. IMCgp100 comprises an affinity-enhanced soluble TCR specific for the HLA-A2 restricted melanoma-associated antigen gp100, fused to an anti-CD3 scFv. A scalable manufacturing process has been established, and IMCgp100 is currently in a phase I/II clinical study in patients with late-stage malignant melanoma in US and UK.
Immunocore, based in Abingdon (United Kingdom), is a privately owned biotechnology company founded in 2008 and coming from Avidex, founded in 1999 as a spin-out from the University of Oxford to develop novel T Cell Receptor technologies invented by Bent Jakobsen. Immunocore has a robust technical platform allowing for the generation of GMP compliant (Good Manufacturing Practice) and fully scalable manufacturing processes. Immunocore established regulatory pathways approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) that will be the basis for future developments of ImmTAC programmes. Immunocore has a growing database of more than 20 validated target antigens available for partnering, over 90% of them being intracellular proteins and therefore not accessible by conventional antibodies.
More about Immunocore : www.immunocore.com
Immunocore – IMCgp100 – metastatic melanoma – ImmTACS – immunotherapy – ImmTAC – Immune mobilising mTCR Against Cancer – monoclonal T cell receptor – mTCR – HLA – immunotherapeutic
Immunocore – T Cell Receptors – TCR – anti-CD3 antibody fragment – anti-viral – anti-cancer – Avidex – Bent Jakobsen