-- 07 October 2008: immatics won second prize in European Biotechnica Award 2008
-- 14 July 2008: immatics obtains important U.S. and European patents
-- 09 July 2008: immatics appoints Paul G. Higham as Chief Executive Officer
-- 07 July 2008: immatics receives 3 research grants totaling 1.4 mn € to advance its early-stage cancer immunotherapy programs
-- 22 April 2008: immatics launches Phase I/II study of IMA910 cancer vaccine in colorectal cancer
-- 11 January 2008: immatics opens office in Munich

07 July 2008

immatics receives 3 research grants totaling 1.4 mn € to advance its early-stage cancer immunotherapy programs

Tuebingen, July 7, 2008 – immatics biotechnologies GmbH today announced that the company has received grants from three renowned public research funding programs to advance its early-stage cancer immunotherapy programs, with a special focus on glioblastoma and cancer stem cells. The government-sponsored so-called non-repayable funds add up to more than 1.4 million €.

The first grant covering approximately 540,000 € was awarded by the BioChancePLUS program of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and will support a collaboration of immatics with Dr Christel Herold-Mende of Heidelberg’s University Clinic and Dr Philipp Beckhove of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) to develop a novel immunotherapeutic vaccine against glioblastoma (brain cancer), a condition with only very limited therapeutic options to date.

The second grant of approximately 250,000 € was awarded by the German federal state Baden-Wuerttemberg within a program supporting research activities of regional biotechnology companies. The funds will be dedicated to the preclinical evaluation of new immunomodulators and to the development of immunogenic formulations in combination with tumor-associated peptides. Such immunomodulators and formulations shall support the enhancement of the efficacy of current and future vaccine candidates.

The third and largest grant immatics has received will be used for the development of a novel class of therapeutic vaccines which trigger immune responses by specifically targeting cancer stem cells. Thereby they allow for a more effective and sustainable elimination of the tumor. Such vaccines may also be able to eliminate a variety of tumor entities and therefore have a significant market potential. The grant of approximately 625,000 € was awarded by the program “KMU-innovativ” of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Academic collaboration partners for this project will be Prof Dr Pierre-Yves Dietrich of the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève and Prof Dr Hans-Georg Rammensee of the Eberhard-Karls-Universitaet in Tuebingen.

“We are delighted about being awarded three important grants within the past months,” said Dr Harpreet Singh, Chief Scientific Officer of immatics. “The funds will allow us to strengthen our academic partnerships and to expand our research and preclinical development activities in major cancer fields such as glioblastoma and cancer stem cells. Consequently, our goal is to generate new findings in collaboration with our academic partners and use them to advance our programs in cancer immunotherapy.”

-/ Press Release_Grants 1,4 mn_2008.07.07 (PDF, 102 KB)

-/ Pressemitteilung_F?rdermittel 1,4 Mio._2008.07.07 (PDF, 104 KB)