Selexis and KBI to advance Immatics program towards IND

Selexis and KBI will provide integrated services to develop Immatics’ bispecific T cell engaging receptor program.

Selexis will leverage its SUREtechnology to produce a clonal cell line for Immatics’ candidate IMA402 and KBI Biopharma will utilize its formulation, analytics, and manufacturing capabilities. No financial details have been disclosed.

“Selexis and KBI are both JSR Life Sciences companies and are able offer partners integrated services that can accelerate biologic development timelines,” CEO of both companies Dirk Lange told BioProcess Insider.

Image: iStock/elenabs

“These integrated services from Selexis and KBI will be part of Immatics’ development of TCR bispecifics [called] TCER (T Cell Engaging Receptors).”

IMA402 aims to target PRAME, which is a protein often expressed in various solid cancers. In turn, the candidate has the potential to address a wide range of cancer patients.

IMA402 has showed anti-tumor activity against PRAME-positive cancer cells in preclinical proof-of-concept.

Selexis SUREtechnology

Selexis’ SUREtechnology platform delivers a modular approach to cell line development that provides top cell line productivity levels and has the capability to address the difficulties associated with manufacturing complex proteins.

Lange told us that to address the three key capabilities required for bispecific antibody (bsAbs) production, SUREtechnology consists of: Selexis Genetic Elements (SGE), SUREvariant Screening and SURE CHO-Mplus Libraries.

SGEs, Lange explained, are “proprietary epigenetic DNA-based elements that boost protein expression by controlling the dynamic organization of chromatin around the recombinant gene integration sites. The SGEs facilitate opening of the chromatin and stabilization of the transgene integration, which in turn allows for higher and sustained expression of recombinant proteins, even with multi-gene integrations.”

SUREvariant Screening, meanwhile “allows for the assessment of up to 250 different CHO-M cell transfectant pools expressing, for example, different ratios of the bsAb heavy and light chains,” he continued.

Thirdly, the SURE CHO-Mplus Libraries are for cases where a bsAb product experiences secretion bottlenecks, he said.  “These libraries were generated as a result of the genomic and transcriptomic analysis of Selexis’ CHO-M cell line. The libraries allow Selexis to fine-tune secretion activities based on the specific secretory needs of a range of difficult-to-express proteins.”

No scale-up of staff, equipment, or facility is needed to service this deal.

“Selexis will generate the IMA402 cell line in its Geneva laboratory. KBI will perform the work at its existing US facilities,” said Lange.