Immunome, which has developed a way to clone monoclonal human antibodies that can be used to help develop more effective cancer drugs and with potential applications for rare diseases, has signed its first research and development partnership with a Big Pharma company.
The Wynnewood, Pennsylvania company’s approach differs from its competitors, says Timothy Pelura, the CEO. The traditional route to generating monoclonal antibodies has depended on using artificial systems, particularly mice. A foreign protein is injected into a mouse and its immune system reacts and makes antibodies against it. Scientists isolate these antibodies to use in developing treatments for human diseases.
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The problem, says Pelura, is that this approach relies on a simple immune system. Humans have the most complex and powerful immune system in biology.
The company, founded by Dr. Scott K. Dessain, has found a way to get monoclonal antibodies from human beings who are immune to certain diseases by nature of their immune systems, or because they have been vaccinated.
Pelura, who joined the company in 2009, says the technology has broad capabilities in therapy, diagnosis and research re-agents. Cancer has been the company’s internal focus.
“For example, many oncologists will see patients that are doing much better than they should be — like a stage 3 or stage 4 cancer patient that has been stable for three or four years and the hypothesis is they are stable because they have been making antibodies to fight the cancer — not enough to kill it, but enough to [prevent it from advancing]. And what we have been doing is looking at these people with these antibodies in cancer.”
In the business of monoclonal antibodies, Pelura notes, there are currently 32 clinical programs studying monoclonals in cancer right now. The 32 programs are studying eight targets, i.e., the protein the antibody sticks to.
There has been a lot of competition around these eight targets, and the fact that there is such a small number of targets that companies can make antibodies toward has been an issue, Pelura says.
Pelura says with Immunome’s technology, it can look at cancer patients and the antibodies they are making to fight their cancer and discover new targets for which new therapies can be developed. It uses blood samples from relevant patients to find the antibodies. In addition to cancer, the technology could be applied to other maladies.
“So not only do we have a discovery program for therapeutics, but we have a new discovery program to develop treatments for rare diseases,” Pelura says.
“Big Pharma sees us as being able to deliver antibodies with much reduced risk — they were circulating in a human being, so we know they are safe, secure and curative by nature of our technology, so the drug companies can go into development with a much better sense of confidence.”
The company disclosed it is raising $1.5 million, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Pelura says it will be the last fundraise by the company because it’s been able to successfully craft two deals with large pharmaceutical companies and is working on a third. The money raised will be used to increase its internal capacity to meet the needs of the partnerships it has inked.
