Under the recently executed agreement, Immatics will have access to the Evelyn H. Griffin Stem Cell Therapeutics Research Laboratory. The lab is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-registered facility of the Cellular Therapy Core at UTHealth, providing manufacturing of clinical-grade cells in compliance with current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) of the FDA. The Griffin cGMP facility operates within the UTHealth Pediatric Regenerative Medicine Program, which is supported by the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. Therapeutic T cell production will be carried out jointly by Immatics manufacturing personnel and UTHealth quality assurance experts. The agreement, effective Sept.1, 2015, will last through the end of 2018, subject to an extension.
The cells manufactured at UTHealth will be used to treat cancer patients with high unmet clinical need in two early-stage clinical trials funded by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) and conducted at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MD Anderson). The trials will use two ACT approaches under the recently announced collaboration between Immatics and MD Anderson. The first, ACTologTM, will use autologous endogenous tumor-targeting T cells. The second, ACTengineTM, will use autologous gene-engineered tumor-targeting T cells in cancer patients.
“This collaborative effort brings significant added value to the rapidly growing biomanufacturing program at UTHealth” said Fabio Triolo, D.d.R., M.Phil., Ph.D., director of the Cellular Therapy Core at UTHealth.
“This is an important milestone that reflects our commitment to building solid relationships with industrial partners,” adds Charles S. Cox, Jr., M.D., the George & Cynthia Mitchell Distinguished Chair in Neurosciences and director of the Program in Pediatric Regenerative Medicine at UTHealth.
About UTHealthEstablished in 1972 by The University of Texas System Board of Regents, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) is Houston’s Health University and Texas’ resource for health care education, innovation, scientific discovery and excellence in patient care. The most comprehensive academic health center in The UT System and the U.S. Gulf Coast region, UTHealth is home to schools of biomedical informatics, biomedical sciences, dentistry, medicine, nursing and public health and includes The University of Texas Harris County Psychiatric Center and a growing network of clinics throughout the region. The university’s primary teaching hospitals include Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital and Harris Health Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital. For more information, visit www.uth.edu.
About Immatics US, Inc.
Immatics US, Inc. was launched by Immatics and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to develop multiple next-generation adoptive cellular therapies for the treatment of cancer. Immatics US, Inc. is well positioned to become the global leader in ACT based on Immatics’ unrivaled cancer target discovery capabilities, which allow it to access all types of cellular cancer targets including intracellular targets currently not addressed by other ACT approaches. For more information, visit www.immatics.us.
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