Repertoire Immune Medicines and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Collaborate to Identify Novel Antigen Targets Within HPV+ Head and Neck Cancers

- Collaboration leverages Repertoire’s DECODE platform to identify novel antigens for future therapies

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Repertoire Immune Medicines, a clinical-stage biotech company creating a new category of immune therapies for cancer, autoimmunity and infectious disease, today announced a research collaboration with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to advance discovery and clinical development in human papillomavirus-positive (HPV+) oropharyngeal (head and neck) cancers. Through this collaboration, Dana-Farber and Repertoire aim to identify novel tumor antigen targets relevant to HPV+ head and neck tumors that will be used to inform the development of novel therapeutic candidates.

As part of the collaboration, Dana-Farber will provide blood and tissue samples from patients with newly diagnosed, or with late-stage, recurrent HPV+ oropharyngeal cancer. Repertoire will use its DECODE™ platform to identify novel antigens and evaluate tumor antigen expression as well as profile the tumor microenvironment. The results of this research collaboration will inform Repertoire’s selection of tumor antigens for T cell therapy investigation that have the potential to be integrated into clinical trials.

Dana-Farber’s engagement is led by Glenn Hanna, M.D., Director, Center for Salivary and Rare Head and Neck Cancers, Dana-Farber; Ravindra Uppaluri, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Head and Neck Surgical Oncology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber; and Ann Marie Egloff, Ph.D., Lead Investigator in the Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital and a Dana-Farber affiliate investigator.

“While many with human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal cancer are cured, there remains an urgent need for new treatments among those with recurrent or incurable disease. We are hopeful that the application of Repertoire’s cutting-edge antigen decoding technology will enable the design of more effective medicines that utilize the immune system to combat cancer,” said Hanna.

“We are delighted to be collaborating with the world-renowned Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as we work together to obtain novel insights into antigen expressions for patients with HPV-positive cancers,” said Anthony Coyle, Ph.D., President, Research and Development, Repertoire. “We believe this collaboration has the potential to yield breakthrough science through our complementary capabilities to discover novel immune medicines.”

This research engagement is the second collaboration between Dana-Farber and Repertoire. Dana-Farber is currently a site for an ongoing Phase I clinical trial of Repertoire’s PRIME™ IL-15, a novel, autologous, non-genetically modified multiclonal T cell product designed to release IL-15 in a local and sustained manner, limiting systemic exposure and thus improving tolerability. Sarah Nikiforow, M.D., Ph.D., Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber, is principal investigator on this study. More information is available on www.ClinicalTrials.gov, Study Identifier Number NCT03815682.

About Repertoire Immune Medicines

Repertoire Immune Medicines is a clinical-stage biotechnology company working to unlock and direct the remarkable power of the human immune system to prevent or treat cancer, as well as autoimmune and infectious disease. The company is founded on the belief that the repertoire of T cell receptor (TCR)-antigen codes that drive health and disease represents one of the greatest opportunities for innovation in medical science. Repertoire scientists created and developed the DECODE and DEPLOY suite of technologies, which allow in-depth characterization of TCR-antigen pairs, and the ability to rationally design and develop novel targeted immune medicines.

From its sites in Cambridge, Mass., and Zurich, Switzerland, Repertoire’s team of more than 120 is creating a new category of immune medicines enabled from its DECODE discovery platform. The company’s first product in the clinic is a novel multiclonal T cell therapy consisting of naïve, rare T cells derived from the peripheral blood, activated against a curated set of antigens and armed with a proprietary cytokine payload. Repertoire is in clinical-stage immuno-oncology development today, targeting metastatic solid tumors. In the field of autoimmunity, Repertoire is using its proprietary platform to discover novel epitopes and TCRs from patients with type 1 diabetes. The company is also using its DECODE platform to discover infectious disease antigens and responding T cell clones.

To learn more about Repertoire Immune Medicines, please visit our website: www.repertoire.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.