ImCheck Therapeutics, an emerging biopharmaceutical company developing a new generation of immunomodulatory antibodies against cancer and auto-immune diseases, announces a funding award of €930,000 from Bpifrance to contribute to the advancement of one of its novel immunotherapy program in cancer.
The funding will be dedicated to conducting translational studies and launching the production of a novel therapeutic antibody active on both adaptive and innate immune cells and whose target remains confidential at this stage. These studies will be performed in partnership with several renowned international expert academic institutions and will aim at validating the clinical benefit of predictive biomarkers for future treatments as well as study the mechanism of action of the antibody in various hematological cancers (e.g. acute myeloid leukemia, lymphoma) and solid tumors (e.g. colorectal, pancreas, lung, gynecological cancers).
«We are delighted to benefit from the support of the French State as we are preparing for the entry of our antibody in its clinical development phases. ImCheck has a very ambitious development plan building on the discovery work of Daniel Olive’s team, notably on the control mechanisms of gamma-delta T-cells, an immune cell population drawing increasing attention» said Benjamin Charles, Chief Business Officer of ImCheck Therapeutics.
« Bpifrance supports several companies in the highly-innovative and highly-competitive field of immuno-oncology. ImCheck’s projects are highly-differentiated and very well-positioned. We are pleased to support them with this funding. » added Françoise Marchand, Project Innovation Officer at Bpifrance.
The Company plans to take this first antibody candidate into Phase 1 in 2019 and will apply for further additional non-dilutive funding, notably through the FUI program from Bpifrance.
«We hope to rapidly deliver this new generation of immunomodulators with the potential to overcome resistance to existing cancer immunotherapies. In parallel, we intend to develop the proper personalization tools to precisely identify & select responders to this new therapeutic agents» concluded Pierre d’Epenoux, CEO of ImCheck Therapeutics.