Tempus Announces Companion Diagnostic Collaboration with TScan Therapeutics

Diagnostic will be used to prospectively assess HLA loss in patients’ tumors and guide appropriate treatment selection in TScan’s solid tumor clinical trial

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tempus, a leader in artificial intelligence and precision medicine, today announced a new collaboration to develop a companion diagnostic (CDx) test with TScan Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of T cell receptor (TCR)-engineered T cell therapies (TCR-T) for the treatment of cancer patients. The collaboration supports TScan’s screening protocol for its Phase 1 solid tumor clinical trial which is designed to enable customized mixtures of TCR-Ts to be administered to patients based on tumor antigen positivity and intact HLA expression.

TCR-Ts genetically reprogram a patient’s immune system to recognize and fight their cancers. TScan plans to enroll patients with solid tumors including non-small cell lung cancer, melanoma, head and neck cancer, ovarian cancer, and cervical cancer. Up to 40% of these tumors lose half of their HLA genes, which is a frequent and overlooked cause of resistance to immunotherapies such as TCR-Ts. TScan is collaborating with Tempus to use the xT assay, Tempus’ 648-gene panel, to prospectively identify patients with HLA loss in the tumor to select TCR-Ts that recognize HLA genes still intact in the patient’s tumor.

“Utilizing the assay developed in collaboration with Tempus will help determine if the clinical trial participants’ tumors have undergone partial HLA loss and so will enable us to choose the most appropriate TCR-Ts that are customized for the patient’s tumor antigens and preserved HLA genes,” said Debora Barton, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at TScan. “The breadth and depth of selection criteria in this study, including the Tempus companion diagnostic, has the potential to help a significant number of patients across multiple solid tumor types through identification of patients most likely to respond to TCR-T treatment.”

“This CDx work is unique because we’re looking for information that’s not currently in the list of readouts you typically receive from next-generation sequencing of a solid tumor,” said Michael Yasiejko, Executive Vice President at Tempus. “Tempus is uniquely positioned to develop a custom pipeline to extract information from standard tests that need to guide TCR-T therapy development and ultimately help identify patients that may benefit from these therapies.”

About Tempus

Tempus is a technology company advancing precision medicine through the practical application of artificial intelligence in healthcare. With one of the world’s largest libraries of clinical and molecular data, and an operating system to make that data accessible and useful, Tempus enables physicians to make near real-time, data-driven decisions to deliver personalized patient care and in parallel facilitates discovery, development and delivery of optimal therapeutics. The goal is for each patient to benefit from the treatment of others who came before by providing physicians with tools that learn as the company gathers more data. For more information, visit tempus.com.

TScan Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, express or implied statements regarding TScan’s plans, progress, and timing relating to TScan’s solid tumor programs and the identification and enrollment of patients;, the structure, timing and success of TScan’s planned preclinical development, and clinical trials; the potential benefits of, and plans and success relating to, the collaboration between TScan and Tempus; the potential benefits of any of TScan’s proprietary platforms, multiplexing, or current or future product candidates in treating patients; and TScan’s goals and strategy. TScan intends such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as, but not limited to, “may,” “might,” “will,” “objective,” “intend,” “should,” “could,” “can,” “would,” “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “project,” “target,” “design,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “plan,” “on track,” or similar expressions or the negative of those terms. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations that involve risks, changes in circumstances, assumptions, and uncertainties. The express or implied forward-looking statements included in this release are only predictions and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, without limitation: the beneficial characteristics, safety, efficacy, therapeutic effects and potential advantages of TScan’s TCR-T therapy candidates; TScan’s expectations regarding its preclinical studies being predictive of clinical trial results; the timing of the initiation, progress and expected results of TScan’s preclinical studies, clinical trials and its research and development programs; TScan’s plans relating to developing and commercializing its TCR-T therapy candidates, if approved, including sales strategy; estimates of the size of the addressable market for TScan’s TCR-T therapy candidates; TScan’s manufacturing capabilities and the scalable nature of its manufacturing process; TScan’s estimates regarding expenses, future milestone payments and revenue, capital requirements and needs for additional financing; TScan’s expectations regarding competition; TScan’s anticipated growth strategies; TScan’s ability to attract or retain key personnel; TScan’s ability to establish and maintain development partnerships and collaborations; TScan’s expectations regarding federal, state and foreign regulatory requirements; TScan’s ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for its proprietary platform technology and our product candidates; the sufficiency of TScan’s existing capital resources to fund its future operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements; and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, including mitigation efforts and political, economic, legal and social effects, on any of the foregoing or other aspects of TScan’s business or operations; and other factors that are described in the “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of TScan’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and any other filings that TScan has made or may make with the SEC in the future. Any forward-looking statements contained in this release represent TScan’s views only as of the date hereof and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. Except as required by law, TScan explicitly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.