Ipsen Secures $1.2bn Deal To Boost T Cell Research with Marengo

Ipsen and Marengo formed a $1.6 billion partnership in 2022 to proceed with two precision immuno-oncology candidates from Marengo’s SSelective T-Cell Activation Repertoire (STAR) platform.The TriSTAR targets tumours that are quite unlikely to respond to immunotherapy. On the other hand, the STAR platform improves antibodies with T cell costimulatory signals in order to boost the immune response in tumours that are likely to respond to immunotherapy and exhibit high T cell activity.

In April, the announcement was made about the development of the first drug candidate from this initial phase of collaboration. This is the new TCR Vβ bifunctional selective T cell activator molecule aimed at treating solid tumours.Both the companies together plan to file an IND (Investigational New Drug) application for this unnamed drug to the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) with an objective of initiating a Phase I study.

Zhen Su, CEO of Marengo said “This new collaboration with Ipsen builds on our clinically validated TCR Vβ platform and our internal work with new TriSTAR T cell engagers that suggest best-in-class potential and the ultimate precision immuno-oncology goal of delivering the right T cells to the right tumour.”This partnership comes after a recent exclusive global collaboration Of Ipsen’s with Skyhawk Therapeutics, aimed at discovering and developing new small molecules to modulate RNA for the treatment of rare neurological disorders, in a deal which is valued at $1.8 billion.