Antitope And BIIR Announce Cancer Vaccine Cell Line Partnership
The Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR) and Abzena company Antitope announced the start of their collaboration to advance cancer vaccines into clinical development.
Under the terms of the agreement, Antitope will develop a cell line to enable the production of BIIR’s vaccine to treat cancer of the neck, head, and the cervix. The company will use its Composite CHO technology, which was designed to generate stable cell lines that produce high yields of proteins and cGMP manufacture-ready antibodies.
BIIR is currently working on a range of therapeutic vaccines, including its dendritic-cell targeting vaccine against cancer and other serious diseases. Dendritic cells are the primary antigen-presenting cells that play a central role in cellular immune response. These cells are also the primary gateways through which all vaccines act. In manipulating dendritic cells, the BIIR hopes to optimize immune response against cancer.
Gerard Zurawski, co-director of BIIR and Director of the Center for Biotechnology at BIIR, said that he expects the vaccine to progress into clinical studies with the new agreement. Dr. Michael Ramsay, president of Baylor Research Institute, said, “As part of the Baylor Scott & White Health system, BIIR can leverage the GMP manufacturing capability of facilities in Temple, Texas– established with funding from Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) – and our system-wide clinical trials infrastructure, to develop products for cancer patients across the globe,” said Dr. Michael Ramsay, president of Baylor Research Institute.
The collaboration is another milestone between the two companies’ partnership, which was initiated a few years ago when Antitope applied its Composite Human Antibody technology to humanize BIIR’s novel antibodies. The resulting antibodies have been used in the development of BIIR’s therapeutic vaccines.
Matthew Baker, CSO of the Abzena group and co-founder of Antitope, said, “We are delighted to be working with BIIR again and to have the opportunity to help advance one of its novel therapeutic dendritic-cell-targeting vaccines towards the clinic.”