Ex­ist­ing CD25 drugs tend to thwart IL-2 sig­nal­ing, which is im­per­a­tive to shap­ing the body’s im­mune re­sponse. But a French drug de­vel­op­er thinks it has found a way to snuff out reg­u­la­to­ry T cells (known to con­tribute to the ear­ly es­tab­lish­ment and pro­gres­sion of tu­mors) by tar­get­ing CD25 with­out dis­turb­ing IL-2, and now has €18.5 mil­lion in its cof­fers to prove it.

Ar­naud Fous­sat

The Parisian com­pa­ny, Alder­aan Biotech­nol­o­gy, is still very ear­ly in its jour­ney. The Se­ries A round of fund­ing from Ad­vent France Biotech­nol­o­gy (AFB) and Medicxi will be used to com­plete the pre­clin­i­cal de­vel­op­ment of its reg­u­la­to­ry T cell (Tregs) de­plet­ing CD25-spe­cif­ic an­ti­body and take it in­to the clin­ic by 2022.

An un­shack­led im­mune sys­tem can be as dan­ger­ous as a weak one. Tregs are de­signed to po­lice the im­mune sys­tem in­to work­ing as need­ed, but on the flip side, in the tu­mor mi­croen­vi­ron­ment, they con­tribute to dis­ease pro­gres­sion by sup­press­ing the body’s im­mune re­sponse. CD25 is not on­ly a mark­er for Tregs but is al­so key for the main­te­nance and func­tion of these cells. Mean­while, along with CD122 and CD132, CD25 forms the high-affin­i­ty re­cep­tor for in­ter­leukin(IL)-2, which is a growth fac­tor for T cells.

“What we’re do­ing with our an­ti­body is that we tar­get CD25 in a way that can kill reg­u­la­to­ry T cells in the tu­mor, so there is an elim­i­na­tion of those Tregs that are known to be im­muno­sup­pres­sive — but since our an­ti­bod­ies have the speci­fici­ty to spare the IL-2 re­cep­tor, it does not block IL-2 sig­nal­ing,” chief Ar­naud Fous­sat ex­plained in an in­ter­view with End­points News.

“This is crit­i­cal be­cause the old CD25 an­ti­bod­ies (such as Roche’s da­clizum­ab and No­var­tis’ Simulect) that have been de­vel­oped — they are block­ing IL-2, which means they are an­ti-in­flam­ma­to­ry by na­ture, and this is not good for on­col­o­gy.”

The ap­proach sounds a lot like the one tak­en by the British biotech, Tusk Ther­a­peu­tics, which was swal­lowed by Roche in 2018.

Alder­aan, which al­so has an even ear­li­er stage as­set de­signed to boost nat­ur­al killer (NK) cell cy­to­tox­ic ac­tiv­i­ty in can­cer, was found­ed in 2017. That year, it re­ceived €1.5 mil­lion in seed fund­ing in a round led by AFB.

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended nine drugs for approval this week while also giving thumbs up for six expanded indications, including Novo Nordisk’s approved obesity medication Wegovy for younger people. Wegovy is already approved as an obesity treatment in the EU for adults, and the new indication would allow prescriptions for adolescents aged 12 and older.

RNA biotech GreenLight Biosciences has been handed an offer for potential acquisition.

GreenLight said in a release that it has received a non-binding “indication of interest” from Fall Line Endurance Fund to acquire GreenLight’s capital stock for $0.60 per share in cash. The release said any potential agreement between the two parties would depend on certain conditions.

Through a special committee, the biotech will evaluate the offer but added there’s no certainty a deal will go forward. GreenLight will also not make any more announcements until a deal comes through or “otherwise determines” a statement is necessary.

A public T cell biotech’s chief executive has decided to leave the company.

TScan Therapeutics said Friday morning that CEO David Southwell stepped down earlier this week, leaving both his chief executive and board member roles. Filling in is Gavin MacBeath, the company’s CSO and COO. He became the acting CEO on Tuesday, and will continue to remain CSO and COO, TScan’s announcement read.

The German life science group Sartorius will be picking up French contract manufacturer Polyplus for the price of €2.4 billion, or $2.6 billion.

On Friday, Sartorius announced the acquisition through its French subgroup, Sartorius Stedim Biotech, which will be acquiring Polyplus from private investors ARCHIMED and WP GG Holdings IV. Polyplus has 270 employees and produces materials and components that go into making viral vectors that are used in cell and gene therapies. This includes DNA/RNA reagents as well as plasmid DNA. Polyplus has locations in France, Belgium, China and the US.