Immatics, a leading company in the field of cancer immunotherapy, announced that it has initiated enrolment of patients into a phase I trial of its first adoptive cellular therapy (ACT) IMA101, using its proprietary ACTolog approach. The IMA101 phase I trial is the first industry-sponsored trial using products consisting of autologous cytotoxic T lymphocytes targeting defined tumor antigens using Immatics’ novel and proprietary target warehouse. This single-center study is now open for enrollment at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

IMA101 is a personalized, multi-targeted investigational immunotherapy for the treatment of multiple solid tumors, including but not limited to ovarian cancer, gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, and non-small cell lung cancer. This study will include up to 20 patients with relapsed and/or refractory solid cancers, for which no established treatment is available.

The ACTolog approach is based on the principle of expanding specific endogenous T-cells, a therapy pioneered by Cassian Yee, M.D., Professor at MD Anderson.

ACTolog combines several innovative features:

1. The target antigens have been validated as being naturally presented in various solid tumors by Immatics’ proprietary XPRESIDENT target discovery platform.
2. The ACTolog approach generates multiple cell therapy products, each directed against a different tumor target. This approach is designed to be effective in the event of tumor escape variants, compared to targeting just one single antigen.
3. The selection and manufacture of each patient’s ACTolog cell therapy product is actively tailored by measuring the relative presence of eight pre-selected and well-characterized patient tumor-specific antigens.

The primary objective of the IMA101 study is to evaluate the safety and tolerability of the ACTolog approach in patients with target-positive solid cancers. Secondary objectives are the evaluation of feasibility, the persistence of T-cells in vivo, and assessment of anti-tumor activity and biomarkers. Apostolia Tsimberidou, M.D., Ph.D., Professor at the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics at MD Anderson is the Principal Investigator for the IMA101 phase I trial.

Dr. Harpreet Singh, Immatics’ Chief Scientific Officer and CEO of Immatics US, commented: “Entering clinical development with our first adoptive cell therapy program is a significant step for Immatics, and highlights the ability of the XPRESIDENT platform to identify novel and true tumor antigens directly from a patient’s tumor. We are very excited to be combining our unique target discovery capabilities with the world-leading expertise of key investigators from the MD Anderson Cancer Center. We believe that attacking multiple cancer targets simultaneously using our tailored approach may lead to promising new treatment options for cancer patients with significant unmet medical need.”