Immunocore is a  privately owned biotechnology company developing innovative biological therapeutics for the treatment of a range of serious diseases. Its world-leading T cell receptor technology exploits the power of the body’s own immune system to find and kill diseased cells.

Unique technology platform

Immunocore has established a robust technology platform which combines monoclonal T cell receptor (mTCR) targeting technology with an effector technology, anti-CD3 scFv, that catalyses the killing of the targeted diseased cells by the host’s own non-specific cytotoxic T cells. Immunocore is developing a portfolio of products from the platform, called ImmTACs, for the treatment of cancer, chronic infectious disease and diabetes.

Advantages of ImmTACs

Cells infected with cancer and chronic viral infections express lower levels of disease-associated proteins, known as antigens, than those infected by viruses such as the common cold, thereby escaping detection by the immune system. Enhancing the binding affinity of T cell receptors overcomes this “antigen blindness” and enables the immune surveillance system to find diseased cells.

Many cancer-associated proteins are intracellular and are therefore invisible to conventional monoclonal antibodies, which target membrane-bound proteins on cells. The ImmTAC platform technology can target intracellular and secreted proteins as well as those that are membrane bound, and can therefore be applied to a range of well validated molecular targets that are unsuitable for monoclonal antibodies.

Entering the clinic

The first ImmTac product, IMCgp100, for the treatment of metastatic melanoma, entered clinical trials in the UK and USA in 2010. Over the next two years, Immunocore intends to complete phase I trials for IMCgp100 and to move a second cancer product into human clinical trials. Immunocore is funded through to late 2012.