New treatments for cancer that leverage our own immune system to attack and destroy cancer cells can provide long-term and durable therapeutic responses in patients suffering from life-threatening malignancies.
These benefits for patients have been driven by recently developed therapeutic antibodies binding with high specificity to drug targets on immune and cancer cells.
We have multiple immuno-oncology projects in our pipeline and will add to these as we explore four main therapeutic modalities:
- activation of anti-tumour NK and T cell activity;
- activation of innate immune cells including macrophages to destroy cancer cells;
- depletion of immune-suppressor cells;
- increasing effector T cell expansion and invasion into the tumour microenvironment.
Our approach and our portfolio are underpinned by our leading antibody discovery platforms, preclinical models and development capabilities and our strong partnerships that enable rational target selection coupled with our ability to deliver innovative new antibody-based therapeutics including next generation bispecific antibodies and a new class of immunocytokines.
Our technology platforms are especially effective in the discovery and development of antibodies for cancer immunotherapy for the following reasons. By further genetically engineering the IntelliSelect® Transgenic platform, we can discover antibodies which are species cross-reactive. These antibodies recognize conserved epitopes on the targets that are not accessible without this. We can test the efficacy of these antibodies in mice with normal immune systems - thereby enabling selection of the best drug candidates.