Pierre Fabre, the second largest privately held pharmaceutical company in France, and H-Immune SAS, an emerging biotechnology company focused on developing first in class immunotherapies for treatment of various cancers, today announced that they have entered into a strategic research partnership which will utilize H-Immune’s unique technology platform to generate lead candidates of fully human antibodies to serve as the initial step in a program to develop immuno-oncology therapeutics.
As a newly established bioscience company in the immuno-oncology field and spin out from the French Atomic Energy Commission, H-Immune has developed a proprietary In Vitro Immunization (IVI) technology leveraging a breakthrough approach to generate a series of fully human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against any therapeutic target, taking advantage of the affinity maturation processes performed in situ by B lymphocytes.
“Pierre Fabre is an ideal partner for H-Immune to help us begin to realize the full potential of our science and IVI technology which we plan to exploit through multiple industry partnerships,” said Luc Boblet, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO of H-Immune. “This collaboration is designed to catalyze and create tremendous ongoing scientific and product development synergy by leveraging each company’s strengths and assets.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Pierre Fabre will have access to H-Immune’s IVI technology for three different discovery programs in the field of immuno-oncology.
“This transaction strengthens Pierre Fabre’s position in the areas of immuno-oncology and novel cutting-edge biotherapeutics,” said Laurent Audoly, Head of R&D of Pierre Fabre Pharmaceuticals. “H-Immune is developing an antibody technology platform that we are looking forward to accessing as part of our ongoing efforts to identify and develop world-class novel cancer therapeutics. We believe this collaboration enhances the potential of both partners to deliver transformational therapies to patients in areas of significant unmet medical needs.”
Pierre Fabre has a longstanding commitment to development of pharmaceuticals through its Pierre Fabre Immunology Centre of excellence (CIPF) based in Saint-Julien-en-Genevois, France, which is dedicated to the identification, development and manufacturing of biologics.
The financial terms of the agreement, which include expertise contribution, R&D funding, and milestone payments to H-Immune, were not disclosed.