Topas Therapeutics of Hamburg, Germany, has announced that it has signed a multi-year agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim to collaborate in the field of antigen-specific tolerance induction with an initial focus on virus-based delivery vectors that confer novel therapeutics to patients.
Virus-based therapeutics are emerging as a promising new approach to the treatment of cancer, with applications such as oncolytic viruses and also delivery vectors for cancer vaccines. However, as with any virus, the body may develop an unwanted immune reaction, prohibiting repeated administration of the viral therapeutic and possibly limiting its utility. In this collaboration, the Topas tolerizing nanoparticle technology will take aim at preventing this vector-neutralizing response.
Under the terms of the agreement, Topas will be responsible for the design, application and production of its proprietary tolerizing particles while Boehringer Ingelheim will contribute its antigen know-how and its pharmacology expertise to the collaboration in order to develop tolerance-generating adjuvant candidates. Boehringer Ingelheim has an option to license several pre-clinical development candidates produced under the collaboration for development and commercialization. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. Read about Topas’ technology and the press release here https://topas-therapeutics.com/topas/news/press-releases