The Mainz-based company BioNTech SE and the biotechnology company Medigene AG in Martinsried intend to jointly develop T-cell receptor-based immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer as part of a global collaboration. Under the terms of the agreement, Medigene will receive an upfront payment of EUR 26 million and be eligible for milestone payments.
T-cell therapy has emerged as a promising treatment for cancer patients. This immunotherapeutic approach attempts to overcome the existing tolerance to cancer cells and tumor-induced suppression of an immune response. For this purpose, T cells are taken from the patient and genetically modified with tumor-specific T cell receptors (TCRs) and subsequently multiplied.
The T cell receptor modified T cells (TCR T cells) are reprogrammed to express a T cell receptor that can recognize specific antigens found only on tumor cells. The resulting TCR-T cells are designed to precisely recognize and efficiently destroy cancer cells.
As part of the collaboration, Medigene will contribute its proprietary TCR platform to develop T cell receptors against various targets selected by BioNTech to address a variety of solid tumors.
Prof. Dolores Schendel, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer at Medigene said: "Medigene is at the forefront of the development of TCR-T therapies foroncology. The sale and licensing deal with BioNTech is an important validation from a global leading biotech company of our proprietary technologies to discover and characterize highly specific TCRs and empower resulting TCR-T cells to fight solid tumors. This partnership provides Medigene with meaningful financial resources to fuel our next generation development programs targeting potentially novel tumor-specific "dark matter" antigens, further tools to enhance T-cell-based immunotherapies, as well as additional potential strategic deals with future milestone payments and royalties."
BioNTech will acquire Medigene’s next generation preclinical TCR program, which combines TCR-4 of Medigene’s MDG10XX program targeting PRAME with Medigene’s proprietary PD1-41BB switch receptor technology. BioNTech will also obtain the exclusive option to acquire additional existing TCRs in Medigene’s discovery pipeline and will receive licenses to the company’s PD1-41BB switch receptor and precision pairing library. This has the potential to augment TCR cell therapy efficacy and can be applied to all BioNTech cell therapy programs.
"This collaboration with Medigene expands our cell therapy portfolio and TCR discovery capabilities, and further strengthens our ability to be a leader in the rapidly emerging field of engineered cell therapies," said Prof. Ugur Sahin, M.D., Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of BioNTech."We look forward to working closely with Medigene to develop new treatments which address solid tumors with high unmet medical need."
Under the terms of the agreement, Medigene will receive EUR 26 million upfront, as well as research funding for the period of the collaboration. BioNTech will be responsible for global development and hold exclusive worldwide commercialization rights on all TCR therapies resulting from this research collaboration. Medigene will be eligible to receive development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments up to a tripledigit million EUR amount per program in addition to tiered deferred option payments on global net sales for products based on TCRs arising from the collaboration and royalties on products utilizing at least one of the licensed technologies.
Medigene - a company with a long history in Munich's biotech cluster
Medigene originated in 1994 as a spin-off of the Munich Gene Center, co-founded by BioM CEO Prof. Dr. Horst Domdey. In 2000, the company went public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and was the first German biotech company to launch the cancer drug Eligard in 2004. In 2014, Medigene then acquired Trianta Immunotherapies GmbH, a spin-off from Helmholtz Zentrum München focused on personalized immunotherapies, whose CEO was the current Medigene CEO Prof. Dolores Schendel. Trianta won the m4 Award in 2011, which is endowed with a total of €2.5 million. The pre-seed competition is coordinated by BioM and funded by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs.