ImCheck Therapeutics has received €20.18m ($22.35m) in non-dilutive funding from the French government to advance its pipeline.
The funds were disbursed as part of the “i-Démo” call for projects under the France 2030 Plan operated by Bpifrance on behalf of the French government. The public capital will be used to advance ImCheck’s clinical pipeline consisting of a T cell-activating monoclonal antibody and an infectious disease therapy.
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The French company’s lead candidate is ICT01, a pathogen-agnostic γ9δ2 T cell-activating monoclonal antibody targeting BTN2A, also known as CD277. It is being evaluated in multiple solid tumours and blood cancer indications in Phase I/IIa trials.
The company is also investigating ICT01 in combination with Merck &Co (MSD)’s checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in patients with refractory solid tumours. The interim data from 21 patients with refractory melanoma enrolled in the Phase I/II EVICTION study (NCT04243499) showed three atrial responses at 16 weeks. A disease control rate of 21% was also observed with the combination therapy. The most common adverse events were grade 1-2 in intensity and included infusion-related reactions and cytokine release syndrome.
Another open-label study, the Phase I/II EVICTION-2 trial (NCT05307874), is evaluating ICT01 and Clinigen’s low-dose subcutaneous interleukin-2 therapy, Proleukin (aldesleukin), in patients with advanced solid tumours. In November 2023, ImCheck reported data showing that 19 patients have completed at least one cycle, with mild to moderate adverse events and no dose-limiting toxicities.
The latest funding influx is the fifth consecutive time ImCheck has received financial support from the French Government, whose plans have earmarked €54bn (59.8bn) for supporting strategic sectors. This includes healthcare as part of the France 2030 Investment Plan.
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By GlobalDataImCheck also plans to funnel resources to advance an anti-BTN2A agnostic γ9δ2 T cell-activating monoclonal antibody, ICT41, as a therapy for bacterial and viral infections.
The recent mpox outbreak has seen a rise in investment in infectious diseases. Earlier this week, the US Food and Drug Administration expanded the label for Emergent BioSolutions’ mpox vaccine, ACAM2000.
