IONTAS announces collaboration

CAMBRIDGE, U.K.—IONTAS Ltd., which has a focus on the discovery and optimization of fully human antibodies, recently announced that it had entered into a collaboration agreement with Inotrem, a specialist in immunotherapy for acute and chronic inflammatory syndromes. As part of the agreement, IONTAS is to apply its Mammalian Display technology to identify antibodies involved in the TREM-1 pathway.

TREM-1, an immunoreceptor expressed on innate immune cells, has been identified by Inotrem as a key therapeutic target for many acute or chronic inflammation syndromes, including sepsis and myocardial infarction. Under the terms of the collaboration, Inotrem will have access to IONTAS’ proprietary Mammalian Display platform, enabling specific high-affinity antibodies with optimal biophysical properties to be selected. This will support the company in developing TREM-1 inhibition-based therapies more efficiently, with reduced chemistry, manufacturing and control risk.

IONTAS’ Mammalian Display technology facilitates an increase in the probability and speed of antibodies successfully progressing into cell line development and manufacture. The platform screens antibodies in IgG format in the context of a mammalian cell, allowing researchers to assess lead candidate function, expression and developability early in the discovery process.

“Following the expansion of our Series B fundraising to €58 million,” said Dr Marc Derive, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Inotrem, “this collaboration with IONTAS allows us to diversify our lead generation process, ultimately helping us to bring new therapies for major public inflammatory diseases.”