Bristol Myers Squibb Enters $920 Million License Agreement with Immatics to Develop and Commercialize TCR Bispecific Candidate IMA401

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On Tuesday this week, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Immatics N.V. jointly announced that they had reached a licensing agreement to develop and commercialize Immatics' TCR bispecific candidate project IMA401. Immatics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to discovering and developing T-cell redirecting cancer immunotherapies.

Under the terms of the agreement, Bristol-Myers Squibb will pay Immatics an upfront payment of $150 million, up to $770 million in development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments, as well as tiered double-digit royalties based on the net sales of IMA401. Immatics retains the option to co-fund the development in the U.S. market in exchange for increased U.S. royalties and/or co-promotion of IMA401 in the United States.

IMA401 is the most advanced candidate in Immatics' TCR bispecific pipeline. It is a half-life extended TCER® (T Cell Engaging Receptor) molecule, with one binding domain targeting MAGEA4/8, a highly prevalent antigen across multiple solid tumors, and another binding domain engaging and activating T cells. In preclinical proof-of-concept studies, IMA401 demonstrated complete response-level antitumor activity in various in vivo tumor models, including patient-derived xenograft models. This agreement outlines a development plan under which the two companies will advance the program through a clinical development collaboration.

In November 2021, Immatics submitted a Clinical Trial Application (CTA) to the German Federal Regulatory Agency, the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), for the development of IMA401. The clinical trial is planned to be initiated in the first half of 2022 and will enroll patients with various types of solid tumors.

Teri Foy, Senior Vice President of Immuno-Oncology and Cell Therapy Research and Early Development at Bristol-Myers Squibb, stated: "We are delighted to expand our collaboration with Immatics to now include IMA401. TCER® represents a significant emerging treatment modality for solid tumors, with the potential to deliver cell therapy-like efficacy through an off-the-shelf platform, thereby broadening patient access. We look forward to advancing IMA401 into clinical trials and further evaluating its potential as an innovative medicine to help patients overcome serious diseases."

Previously, Immatics and Celgene (which has been acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb) entered into a strategic collaboration worth $1.59 billion in 2019 to develop novel adoptive cell therapies. Under this collaboration, Immatics will advance T Cell Receptor-engineered T Cell Therapy (TCR-T) programs targeting solid tumor antigens discovered through its XPRESIDENT technology, utilizing proprietary T Cell Receptors (TCRs) identified by the company’s XCEPTOR TCR discovery and engineering platform.

Bristol-Myers Squibb's expansion of its collaboration with Immatics is aimed at achieving breakthroughs in solid tumors. This new collaboration focuses on developing the bispecific candidate therapy TCER®IMA401, which will complement the ongoing cell therapy collaboration and has the potential to provide a more convenient alternative. In both collaborations, the two treatment approaches, TCR-T and TCER, are built on Immatics' ability to identify novel targets and develop high-affinity, target-specific TCRs.

Reference Source: Bristol Myers Squibb Drops $920 Million to Broaden Partnership with Immatics