Noile-Immune’s tech gets $315m vote of confidence to tackle solid tumors

Noile-Immune Biotech had previously signed a deal with Takeda​ to develop its PRIME technology for the augmentation of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T therapies.

The Japanese biotech’s latest agreement sees it collaborate with Adaptimmune Therapeutics to develop the ‘next generation’ of ‘SPEAR’ T-cell products.

Adaptimmune will pay Noile in upfront cash and milestone payments that could total up to $312m (€281m) – in addition, Noile will be eligible to receive mid-single digital royalties on net sales of any commercialized product.

Through the deal, Adaptimmune will be able to incorporate Noile’s PRIME technology against a limited number of T-cell targets.

Noile’s technology has been adopted by both Takeda and Adaptimmune because it may boost the efficacy of immunotherapy treatments against solid tumors and create more effective cancer treatments.

Adaptimmune’s Karen Miller, SVP of pipeline research, further explained, “This agreement with Noile-Immune will enable us to generate next‑generation SPEAR T-cells secreting both IL-7 and CCL19, which may improve proliferation and trafficking of not only our engineered SPEAR T-cells, but also the patient’s own T-cells into solid tumors. This increased T-cell proliferation and trafficking may enhance anti-tumor activity for cancer patients.”​

According to Adaptimmune, the company is able to engineer the affinity of the T-cell receptors, in order for the body to recognize and target specific cancer peptides, reducing toxicity to off-target cells.

The partners aim to bring through a treatment for first-in-man studies by 2021.