Germany-based biopharmaceutical company Immatics Biotechnologies has established a US-based spinout dubbed Immatics US with more than $40m in funding, Fierce Biotech reported on Tuesday.
The company has also secured a $19.7m grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, an organisation set up and funded by the Texas state government.
Immatics US will develop three adoptive cellular therapies (ACTs) by collaborating with Patrick Hwu and Cassian Yee from University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The company has also licensed several other technologies from MD Anderson which facilitate the development of ACTs.
The research of Hwu, division head of cancer medicine for MD Anderson, and Yee, a professor of medical melanoma oncology, laid the groundwork for ACTs, which exploit T-cells – a part of the human body’s immune system – to target tumours.
Immatics US unofficially launched in July 2015 and currently has eight staff members, though the team will increase to 40 over the next three years.
Paul Higham, CEO of Immatics Biotechnologies, said: “The combination of MD Anderson’s significant clinical oncology and cell therapy expertise and our own unrivalled cancer target discovery capabilities will allow us to develop the optimal ACT for the treatment of cancer, initially a range of solid tumours with high unmet medical need.”