What Happened?
Houston, TX-based Immatics US Appointed Harpreet Singh as Co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer
About the Company
Immatics Biotechnologies is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leading the development of advanced immunotherapies that are active against cancer. Cancer immunotherapy is still severely constrained by the lack of novel targets. Immatics overcomes this by applying its target discovery engine XPRESIDENT® to identify and validate antigens specific to cancer cells. These antigens, also called Tumor-Associated Peptides (TUMAPs), are able to activate T cells which are responsible for identifying and destroying cancer cells. These well characterized TUMAPs can be used as targets for all of the most promising cancer immunotherapy approaches including Adoptive Cell Therapies (ACT), soluble T Cell Receptors (TCRs), Antibodies and Cancer Vaccines. The US based Immatics US, Inc., launched in Aug. 2015, is focused on the development of three ACT approaches for the treatment of tumors with high unmet medical needs: ACTolog™, ACTengine™, and ACTallo™ in close collaboration with leading scientists at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, who contribute their long-term ACT expertise. The first ACT products are expected to enter the clinic in 2016. Immatics signed a strategic cancer immunotherapy collaboration with Roche in November 2013 to research, develop and commercialize a number of new cancer peptide antigen-based immunotherapies. In addition, Immatics is engaged in the development of soluble T-cell receptor (sTCR) approaches as well as monoclonal antibodies (mABs) directed towards XPRESIDENT® targets. The latter will be pursued in a strategic alliance with MorphoSys. Immatics is further conducting the clinical development of fully personalized therapeutic cancer vaccines, Glioma Actively Personalized VAccine Consortium (GAPVAC; an EU-funded consortium) in collaboration with BioNTech. Immatics GmbH is based in Tübingen, Germany, with a headcount of approximately 90 people. Immatics US, Inc. is based in Houston, Texas, USA, and currently employs approximately 15 people.
About the Person
Dr Harpreet Singh co-founded Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH, the parent company of Immatics US, Inc. in 2000 during his PhD studies. Since then he has served over 15 years as Managing Director and Chief Scientific Officer of Immatics GmbH dedicated to the translation of science into highly innovative cancer immunotherapeutics as well as business concepts. At Immatics GmbH, he has led or significantly contributed raising more than $160m of venture capital in four financing rounds from 2004 to 2014 and is responsible for leading >50 FTEs dedicated to Target and TCR Discovery, Immunology, CMC and Translational Development.
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