ImaginAb announced a collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim to further develop ImaginAb's CD8 T Cell imaging technology. The collaboration will focus on the development of ImaginAb's CD8 T Cell ImmunoPET, an imaging agent that has the potential to expedite the development and market launch of next-generation cancer immune-therapies. Financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.
The CD8 T cell imaging agent will be tested for its potential to non-invasively determine changes in CD8+ T cell tumor infiltrates induced by immuno-oncological treatments in first clinical studies. This approach has the potential to guide the development of immuno-modulatory agents as well as assess early on whether a patient responds to such a treatment. The parties will share data from a clinical study in melanoma patients treated with standard of care checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Changes in the uptake of the CD8 T cell imaging agent following treatment induction will be assessed as part of the collaboration, and Boehringer Ingelheim will partially fund ImaginAb's clinical development program.
"We are delighted about our partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim, centered on helping them accelerate their clinical immuno-oncology development. This is our first clinical partnership, and an important milestone for us. We are in the process of forming similar partnerships with other pharmaceutical companies, using our unique engineered antibody fragment platform," said Martyn Coombs, CEO at ImaginAb.