Boehringer Ingelheim Acquires ICD Therapeutics to Enhance Oncology Drug Efficacy with Innovative Intracellular Delivery Platform

VCBeat (WeChat Official Account: vcbeat) learned from foreign media that on March 29, the German biopharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim announced the acquisition of Berlin-based ICD Therapeutics, with the financial terms undisclosed. Following this acquisition, Boehringer Ingelheim will gain access to ICD’s MacroDel innovative biologic delivery platform.

It is reported that prior to this acquisition, Boehringer Ingelheim had already supported ICD’s development of MacroDel technology through its venture capital fund, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF). Boehringer Ingelheim plans to collaborate with nanoPET Pharma, a former shareholder of ICD, to leverage the MacroDel platform for developing novel cancer therapies. nanoPET Pharma is a nanotechnology provider in the biopharmaceutical industry, specializing in the research and development, manufacturing, and marketing of medical devices for diagnostic imaging.

Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the top 20 global biopharmaceutical companies, with more than 40 marketed drugs developed in-house. The company boasts a complete pharmaceutical production chain, covering therapeutic areas ranging from human cardiovascular diseases, oncology (cancer), respiratory diseases, central nervous system disorders, metabolic diseases, and immunological diseases to animal health. With research at its core, Boehringer Ingelheim emphasizes innovation and is committed to addressing unmet medical needs in today’s healthcare landscape.

Currently, although the pathogenesis of cancer is well understood, new anticancer drugs developed based on these mechanisms are often accompanied by numerous side effects, thereby reducing their therapeutic efficacy. According to ICD Therapeutics, the primary reason for this outcome is that these novel anticancer agents mainly act extracellularly and fail to impact the key growth mechanisms of tumor cells. Drugs composed of peptides or proteins are typically degraded and absorbed by lysosomes within tumor cells as they attempt to cross the cell membrane. Therefore, the key to overcoming this barrier lies in specifically interfering with tumor cell metabolism. MacroDel, developed by ICD Therapeutics, is a delivery technology designed to ensure the proper intracellular activity of therapeutic agents.

MacroDel consists of polysulfated dendrimers with diverse branched architectures. These molecules leverage their unique structural and charge characteristics to facilitate the transport of anticancer drugs across cell membranes into tumor cells via specific mechanisms. This “escort” technology ensures that anticancer agents successfully reach the interior of target cells, where they immediately become active.

“Our collaboration with nanoPET Pharma is likely to overcome a major technical bottleneck in the development of many anticancer drugs—namely, accessing intracellular targets within tumor cells,” said Dr. Norbert Kraut, Global Head of Cancer Research at Boehringer Ingelheim. “We are leveraging ICD’s MacroDel technology to develop best-in-class potential candidate drugs targeting intracellular sites across various types of tumors, thereby benefiting more cancer patients.”

Dr. Andreas Briel, Managing Director of nanoPET Pharma GmbH, stated, “We look forward to collaborating with Boehringer Ingelheim to achieve effective intracellular delivery of macromolecules such as peptides and proteins through preclinical optimization of ICD’s MacroDel technology. Meanwhile, nanoPET Pharma GmbH is pleased to develop innovative therapies for patients in need.”

Boehringer Ingelheim was founded in 1973. It previously acquired the biopharmaceutical company Actimis Pharmaceuticals for $515 million on June 17, 2008, and later acquired ViraTherapeutics, an oncolytic virus developer, for $245 million on September 13, 2018.

(Compiled by Wang Chan)