Agalimmune Licenses KODE Biotech’s FSL Technology for Development of Cancer Immunotherapeutics

Agalimmune Ltd., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of a pipeline of immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, has licensed KODE Biotech’s Function-Spacer-Lipid (FSL) cell surface membrane modification technology (KODE Technology). The proprietary technology will be incorporated by Agalimmune into its novel cancer immunotherapy molecules.

Under the terms of the agreement, KODE may receive up to $31 million in development and sales milestones, plus royalties on net sales. Agalimmune has exclusive rights to the use of the technology in the field of intratumoral injection for cancer treatment, and specifically relating to the clinical candidate molecule AGI-134. KODE Technology has been extensively validated by Agalimmune prior to in-licensing, and has been shown to be effective for treatment of both primary and secondary tumors in animal models.
                                         
Agalimmune injects synthetic animal-antigen mimetics, which incorporate the FSL constructs, into primary tumors. As the immune system naturally rejects animal tissue, it attacks the modified tumor. In this process of destroying the tumor, the body’s immune system is educated to recognize the patient’s own (autologous) tumor antigens and so destroy unmodified primary and secondary tumors.

“We believe that this technology has great value in immunotherapy, and we are very pleased to be collaborating with a world-leader in the development of synthetic glycolipids,” said Graham Griffiths, director, Agalimmune. “This licensing agreement also represents a significant step forward in Agalimmune’s progress towards the development of pioneering targeted cancer vaccines and immunotherapies for the benefit of patients.”

Giles Whalen, professor of surgery, University of Massachusetts, where Agalimmune’s approaches were first developed, said, “This development builds on the mechanism of action research we have undertaken on this first-in-class therapeutic modality, opens the door to promising combination approaches of immune priming with checkpoint blockade and other immune-modulating therapies, and may bring new promise for the treatment of patients.”