Moderna, Inc. and Immatics N.V. enter into a multi-billion dollar strategic research and development collaboration to jointly develop novel and transformative therapies for cancer patients with high unmet medical needs. Both biotechnology companies are represented by an office in Munich.
This broad multi-platform collaboration will leverage the deep scientific expertise and core operational capabilities of both companies: Immatics’ TCR platform and Moderna’s cutting-edge mRNA technology. The collaboration spans various therapeutic modalities including bispecifics, cell therapy and cancer vaccines.
The strategic R&D collaboration between Moderna and Immatics focuses on three pillars: Applying Moderna’s mRNA technology for in vivo expression of Immatics’ next-generation, half-life extended TCR bispecifics (TCER®) targeting cancer-specific HLA-presented peptides. Secondly, the discovery and development of novel mRNA-based cancer vaccines by leveraging Moderna’s deep knowledge of mRNA science and customized information from Immatics’ wealth of tumor and normal tissue data included in the target discovery platform XPRESIDENT® and its bioinformatics and AI platform XCUBE™. Furthermore, the companies devote themselves to the investigation of Immatics’ IMA203 TCR-T therapy targeting PRAME in combination with Moderna’s PRAME mRNA-based cancer vaccine. The collaboration contemplates conducting preclinical studies and a Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of the combination with the objective of further enhancing IMA203 T cell responses.
Under the terms of the agreement, Immatics will receive an upfront payment of 120 million USD. Immatics will also receive research funding and is eligible to receive development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments that could exceed 1.7 billion USD. Immatics is also eligible to receive tiered royalties on global net sales of TCER® products and certain vaccine products that are commercialized under the agreement.
Moderna will lead the clinical development and commercialization of cancer vaccines and TCER® therapeutics resulting from the collaboration.