Imugene

Last updated

Imugene Ltd
TypePublic company
ASX:  IMU
Industry Biotechnology
Founded2012
Headquarters Sydney, Australia
Key people
Paul A. Hopper
(Executive Chairman)
Leslie Chong
(Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director)
Dr Jakob Dupont
(Non-Executive Director)
Charles Walker
(Non-Executive Director)
Dr Lesley Russell
(Non-Executive Director)
Dr Jens Eckstein
(Non-Executive Director)
ProductsHER-Vaxx; PD1-Vaxx; CHECKvacc; VAXINIA; onCARlytics
Website www.imugene.com

Imugene Ltd is a clinical stage immuno-oncology company developing a range of new and novel immunotherapies that seek to activate the immune system of cancer patients to treat and eradicate tumours. Imugene's unique platform technologies seeks to harness the body's immune system against tumours, potentially achieving a similar or greater effect than synthetically manufactured monoclonal antibody and other immunotherapies.

Contents

The company's product pipeline includes multiple immunotherapy B-cell vaccine candidates and an oncolytic virotherapy (CF33) aimed at treating a variety of cancers in combination with standard of care drugs and emerging immunotherapies such as CAR T's for solid tumours.

Imugene is a publicly traded company, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under the code IMU. In December 2021 it entered the S&P/ASX 200 Index, in effect making it one of the 200 largest companies on the ASX.

History

Imugene began as a research project in the laboratory of Professor Ursula Wiedermann at the Medical University of Vienna. Over the nine years from 2004 Wiedermann et al. had developed a B cell peptide cancer immunotherapy that could induce an antibody response targeting HER-2 overexpressing tumours. In 2012 a start-up company called Biolife Science was incorporated to develop this immunotherapy (HER-Vaxx). Early-stage funding was secured from Australian and US investors in 2013, after which Biolife was taken public in December 2013 in a reverse takeover of Australian drug development company Imugene, whose name was retained after the merger.

CEO & Managing Director Leslie Chong joined the company, initially as COO, in 2015 after working at Genentech in California, USA. HER-Vaxx entered the clinic in 2017, with the company's PD1-Vaxx technology licensed from Ohio State University and the Mayo Clinic the following year. In 2019 the company then licensed the CF33 oncolytic virus platform, invented by renowned oncologist Professor Yuman Fong of City of Hope Cancer Center in California, USA. In 2021 it also licensed the onCARlytics technology developed by Professor Fong. The company's CHECKvacc (2021) and VAXINIA (2022) technologies have also subsequently entered the clinic.

Oncolytic virus technology

onCARlytics (CF33-CD19) is a novel immunotherapy utilising the CF33 oncolytic virus to deliver and present CD19 antigen on the surface of cancer cells promoting utilisation of combination with CD19 targeting agents against solid tumours. Researchers first created an oncolytic virus (CF33-CD19) in the lab of City of Hope's Professor Yuman Fong, M.D., to get into tumour cells and start producing CD19. They did this successfully in triple-negative breast, pancreatic, prostate, ovarian, head and neck, and brain cancer cell lines. CF33-CD19 oncolytic virus was then combined with CD19 CAR T cells in vitro and in vivo mice studies. Researchers showed significant activity with mice being cured of their cancer with the CF33-CD19 and CAR T-cell combination, as well as prolonged protective anti-tumour immunity. Solid tumours don't express CD19 on their cell surface, therefore introducing the CF33-CD19 allowed for CD19 to be present on the solid tumour cell surface, as well as helped to reverse the tumour's harsh microenvironment, making it receptive to receiving CAR T-cell therapy.

B-cell immunotherapies

B-cell immunotherapies link an immunogenic protein with a B-cell epitope and incorporate an adjuvant to produce a B-cell cancer vaccine that induces the body to produce antibodies against the normal self-proteins, such as HER2 or PD-1 (known as breaking immune tolerance). The antibodies produced following the vaccination are a ‘polyclonal’ mixture of antibodies that bind to different parts of the vaccine antigen.

HER-Vaxx is a B-cell immuno-therapy designed to treat tumours that over-express the HER-2/neu receptor, such as gastric, breast, ovarian, lung and pancreatic cancers. Developed by leading scientists at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria, the immuno-therapy is constructed from several B-cell epitopes derived from the extracellular domain of HER-2/neu. It has been shown in pre-clinical studies and in Phase I studies to stimulate a potent polyclonal antibody response to HER-2/neu, a well-known and validated cancer target.

PD1-Vaxx is a B-cell immuno-therapy which aims to induce the body to produce polyclonal antibodies that block PD-1 signalling, and thus produce an anticancer effect similar to Keytruda, Opdivo and the other immune checkpoint inhibitor monoclonal antibodies that are transforming treatment of a range of cancers. PD1-Vaxx has shown great potential in preclinical studies. It outperformed an industry-standard mouse anti-PD-1 antibody in a mouse model of colorectal cancer.

Developed by Professor Pravin Kaumaya at the Ohio State University in Columbus OH, the immunotherapy is constructed from a single B cell epitope derived from the extracellular domain of PD-1. .

Main people

Imugene's Executive Chairman is Paul Hopper, an Australian bioentrepreneur based in Sydney who was instrumental in identifying the HER-Vaxx project and taking it public in Imugene. The company's CEO and Managing Director is Leslie Chong, who used to be a Senior Clinical Program Lead at Genentech in San Francisco.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antigen</span> Molecule triggering an immune response (antibody production) in the host

In immunology, an antigen (Ag) is any molecule, molecular structure, foreign particulate matter, or pollen grain that can bind to a specific antibody or T-cell receptor. The presence of antigens in the body may trigger an immune response. Antigens can be proteins, peptides, polysaccharides, lipids, or nucleic acids.

Immunotherapy or biological therapy is the treatment of disease by activating or suppressing the immune system. Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as activation immunotherapies, while immunotherapies that reduce or suppress are classified as suppression immunotherapies. Immunotherapy is under preliminary research for its potential to treat various forms of cancer.

A cancer vaccine is a vaccine that either treats existing cancer or prevents development of cancer. Vaccines that treat existing cancer are known as therapeutic cancer vaccines or tumor antigen vaccines. Some of the vaccines are "autologous", being prepared from samples taken from the patient, and are specific to that patient.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cancer immunotherapy</span> Artificial stimulation of the immune system to treat cancer

Cancer immunotherapy is the stimulation of the immune system to treat cancer, improving on the immune system's natural ability to fight the disease. It is an application of the fundamental research of cancer immunology and a growing subspecialty of oncology.

An oncolytic virus is a virus that preferentially infects and kills cancer cells. As the infected cancer cells are destroyed by oncolysis, they release new infectious virus particles or virions to help destroy the remaining tumour. Oncolytic viruses are thought not only to cause direct destruction of the tumour cells, but also to stimulate host anti-tumour immune system responses. Oncolytic viruses also have the ability to affect the tumor micro-environment in multiples ways.

Virotherapy is a treatment using biotechnology to convert viruses into therapeutic agents by reprogramming viruses to treat diseases. There are three main branches of virotherapy: anti-cancer oncolytic viruses, viral vectors for gene therapy and viral immunotherapy. These branches use three different types of treatment methods: gene overexpression, gene knockout, and suicide gene delivery. Gene overexpression adds genetic sequences that compensate for low to zero levels of needed gene expression. Gene knockout uses RNA methods to silence or reduce expression of disease-causing genes. Suicide gene delivery introduces genetic sequences that induce an apoptotic response in cells, usually to kill cancerous growths. In a slightly different context, virotherapy can also refer more broadly to the use of viruses to treat certain medical conditions by killing pathogens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polyclonal B cell response</span> Immune response by adaptive immune system

Polyclonal B cell response is a natural mode of immune response exhibited by the adaptive immune system of mammals. It ensures that a single antigen is recognized and attacked through its overlapping parts, called epitopes, by multiple clones of B cell.

An oncoantigen is a surface or soluble tumor antigen that supports tumor growth. A major problem of cancer immunotherapy is the selection of tumor cell variants that escape immune recognition. The notion of oncoantigen was set forth in the context of cancer immunoprevention to define a class of persistent tumor antigens not prone to escape from immune recognition.

Peptide-based synthetic vaccines, also called epitope vaccines, are subunit vaccines made from peptides. The peptides mimic the epitopes of the antigen that triggers direct or potent immune responses. Peptide vaccines can not only induce protection against infectious pathogens and non-infectious diseases but also be utilized as therapeutic cancer vaccines, where peptides from tumor-associated antigens are used to induce an effective anti-tumor T-cell response.

JX-594 is an oncolytic virus is designed to target and destroy cancer cells. It is also known as Pexa-Vec, INN pexastimogene devacirepvec) and was constructed in Dr. Edmund Lattime's lab at Thomas Jefferson University, tested in clinical trials on melanoma patients, and licensed and further developed by SillaJen.

Ursula Wiedermann is an Austrian medical scientist who has made significant contributions in the field of allergies and of cancer immunotherapy. She is currently Professor of Vaccinology at the Medical University of Vienna. Wiedermann's work in the field of B cell peptide vaccines led to the creation of HER-Vaxx, an immunotherapy for the treatment of HER-2-positive cancers. This vaccine is currently being taken into mid-stage clinical development in gastric cancer by the biotech company Imugene, where Wiedermann is Chief Scientific Officer.

Viralytics Ltd is an Australian biotechnology company working in the field of oncolytic viruses, that is, viruses that preferentially infect and kill cancer cells. The company's oncolytic virus product, called Cavatak, is currently in clinical trials in metastatic melanoma and other cancers. The drug was granted Orphan Drug status in advanced melanoma in December 2005.

Prescient Therapeutics Ltd is a clinical stage oncology company. The company is focused on the development of a universal CAR-T platform (OmniCAR), enhanced CAR-T cell manufacturing & function (CellPryme) and on two small molecule drug targeted therapies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors</span> Class of anticancer drugs

PD-1 inhibitors and PD-L1 inhibitors are a group of checkpoint inhibitor anticancer drugs that block the activity of PD-1 and PDL1 immune checkpoint proteins present on the surface of cells. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are emerging as a front-line treatment for several types of cancer.

Enadenotucirev is an investigational oncolytic virus that is in clinical trials for various cancers.

Akseli Hemminki July 27, 1973 (Helsinki) is a Finnish specialist in Oncology and Radiotherapy, Professor of Oncology and founder of two biotechnology companies.

Checkpoint inhibitor therapy is a form of cancer immunotherapy. The therapy targets immune checkpoints, key regulators of the immune system that when stimulated can dampen the immune response to an immunologic stimulus. Some cancers can protect themselves from attack by stimulating immune checkpoint targets. Checkpoint therapy can block inhibitory checkpoints, restoring immune system function. The first anti-cancer drug targeting an immune checkpoint was ipilimumab, a CTLA4 blocker approved in the United States in 2011.

SillaJen, Inc. is a South Korea-based biotechnology company, with offices in Busan, Yangsan and Seoul, South Korea, and San Francisco, California.

Passive antibody therapy, also called serum therapy, is a subtype of passive immunotherapy that administers antibodies to target and kill pathogens or cancer cells. It is designed to draw support from foreign antibodies that are donated from a person, extracted from animals, or made in the laboratory to elicit an immune response instead of relying on the innate immune system to fight disease. It has a long history from the 18th century for treating infectious diseases and is now a common cancer treatment. The mechanism of actions include: antagonistic and agonistic reaction, complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC), and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC).

Oligoclonal antibodies are an emerging immunological treatment relying on the combinatory use of several monoclonal antibodies (mAb) in one single drug. The composition can be made of mAb targeting different epitopes of a same protein (homo-combination) or mAb targeting different proteins (hetero-combination). It mimicks the natural polyclonal humoral immunological response to get better efficiency of the treatment. This strategy is most efficient in infections and in cancer treatment as it allow to overcome acquired resistance by pathogens and the plasticity of cancers.

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