Immatics (IMTX) and Editas Medicine (EDIT) Enter Strategic Research Collaboration and Licensing Agreement to Combine Gamma-Delta T Cell Adoptive Cell Therapies and Gene Editing for the Treatment of Ca

Immatics N.V. (Nasdaq: IMTX, “Immatics”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company active in the discovery and development of T cell-redirecting cancer immunotherapies, and Editas Medicine, Inc. (Nasdaq: EDIT, “Editas Medicine”), a leading genome editing company, today announced that the two companies have entered into a strategic research collaboration and licensing agreement to combine gamma-delta T cell adoptive cell therapies and gene editing to develop medicines for the treatment of cancer. As part of the licensing agreement, Immatics gains non-exclusive rights to Editas Medicine’s CRISPR technology and intellectual property. Editas Medicine is the exclusive licensee of Harvard and Broad Institute’s Cas9 patent estates and Broad Institute’s Cas12a patent estate for human medicines.

By combining Editas Medicine’s gene editing technology with Immatics’ ACTallo® allogeneic, off-the-shelf adoptive cell therapy platform based on gamma-delta T cells, gamma-delta T cells can be redirected to cancer cell targets with the goal of creating cells with enhanced tumor recognition and destruction.

“Engineered cell therapies have the potential to significantly impact the treatment paradigm for cancer, and our partnership with the esteemed team at Editas Medicine will provide us with further versatility and flexibility in how we engineer our ACTallo® cell therapies based on a specific tumor target,” said Rainer Kramer, Ph.D., Chief Business Officer, Immatics. “It has always been our focus to deliver innovative science to cancer patients and this collaboration with Editas Medicine will enable us to access CRISPR technologies and apply them to our off-the-shelf gamma-delta T cell platform.”

“We believe that our gene editing technology can modulate and enhance the potential of cell therapies to deliver transformative medicines for the treatment of cancer. We are excited to work with the team at Immatics to develop new experimental medicines with enhanced tumor fighting abilities to help patients with cancer,” said Gilmore O’Neill, M.B., M.M.Sc., President and Chief Executive Officer, Editas Medicine.

Under the terms of the agreement, Editas Medicine will be eligible to receive an undisclosed upfront cash payment as well as additional milestone payments based on development, regulatory, and commercial milestones. In addition, Immatics will pay royalties on future net sales on any products that may result from this collaboration.

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