Biontech follows Immatics and goes after Prame

Biontech’s latest low-key foray into cell therapy, giving Medigene €26m ($29m) for a Prame-directed engineered T-cell receptor asset, might have been inspired by Immatics. A late-breaker at last year’s SITC conference covering Immatics’ anti-Prame TCR IMA203 had shown an impressive, albeit short-lived, 50% remission rate in solid tumours. Biontech now has rights to Medigene’s next-generation Prame-targeting TCR MDG1014, which additionally incorporates a switch receptor converting a negative PD-1 signal from cancer cells into a 4-1BB co-stimulatory one, an approach thought to be necessary to boost activity in solid tumours. Medigene retains rights to its initial anti-Prame construct, MDG1011, whose phase 1 haematological cancer study recently showed reasonable safety and some effect on biomarkers, though the only remission was not sustained. It is notable that Bellicum and Glaxosmithkline/Adaptimmune’s efforts to develop TCRs against Prame both fell on stony ground, and the only other commercial effort targeting this antigen is Immunocore’s IMC-F106C. Medigene stock this morning shot up 90%, giving it a valuation of just over €90m. The obvious question is why did Biontech, flush with Covid vaccine cash, not simply buy Medigene out?