Oncimmune signs new commercial contracts

Oncimmune Holdings announced on Tuesday that it has signed further commercial contracts within its ‘ImmunoINSIGHTS’ pharma services business.

The AIM-traded firm said that, following the recent signing of a master service agreement with an unnamed, “leading” global pharmaceutical company, it has now signed a commercial contract to provide autoantibody biomarker services.

A second contract was agreed, and was expected to be signed in the coming days.

Oncimmune said both programmes were scheduled to complete and be invoiced by the end of the 2022 financial year, with the company expecting the programmes to lead to follow-on studies.

Under the first contract, Oncimmune would develop a multiplexed assay to measure immunoglobulin E (IgE) autoantibodies on its ‘SeroTag’ platform, for planned autoimmune studies.

In the second, pending contract, Oncimmune would evaluate the autoantibody profiles of patient samples collected in an autoimmune trial for chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU).

The firm said the study would measure the autoimmune profile in chronic, idiopathic cases of CIU, and aimed to uncover insights that would support the clinical development of a therapeutic for CIU.

Meanwhile, the firm said it had signed an autoantibody profiling collaboration with the EORTC - an independent, non-profit cancer research organisation whose mission was to coordinate and conduct international translational and clinical research to improve the standard of cancer treatment for patients.

The new research project, co-funded with the EORTC Melanoma Group and MSD, would evaluate the autoantibody profiles of patient samples collected in the ongoing phase 3 trial investigating MSD's anti-PD-1 therapy ‘Keytruda’, or pembrolizumab, as a monotherapy for surgically resected, high-risk melanoma.

It said the project would explore autoantibody profiles as biomarkers of clinical response in patients with melanoma recruited onto the trial, which assessed pembrolizumab versus placebo in an adjuvant setting.

Pembrolizumab was described by the company as an immune checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) with uses in over 15 types of cancer, including for the treatment of melanoma skin cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, bladder cancer and Hodgkin lymphoma.

The project would use the company's SeroTag immuno oncology discovery array to explore the response to therapy, and the potential for immune related adverse events (irAEs) among patients treated with pembrolizumab, nivolumab and ipilimumab.

Oncimmune said the utility of its SeroTag immuno oncology discovery array was previously reported when the results of a prior study were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in 2020.

The aim of the new project was to explore whether autoantibody patterns were associated with recurrence-free survival in the adjuvant setting.

Oncimmune said it had already studied autoantibodies in patients receiving CPI therapy, including pembrolizumab, with the research project set to build on that scientific knowledge, expanding the discovery antigen set and focusing on recurrence among patients treated with pembrolizumab in the adjuvant setting.

Finally, the company said it was also in the final stages of agreeing two new collaborations with “world-leading”, unnamed US-based academic institutes.

The new collaborations would in part focus on new market segments for its existing technology platform, including chimeric antigen receptor cell therapy cells (CAR-T) and chimeric antigen receptor natural killer cells (CAR-NK).

It described CAR-T and CAR-NK cell therapies as “some of the fastest growing segments” in the pharmaceutical market globally, representing significant clinical and commercial growth opportunities for the ImmunoINSIGHTS business.

“Earlier this month we reported on the commercial momentum we have experienced in the second quarter, and committed to update investors on further commercial progress before the end of the calendar year,” said chief executive officer Adam Hill.

“We are therefore delighted to announce the signing of this master service agreement with a leading global pharma group, which has enabled the awarding of a contract utilising our ImmunoINSIGHTS autoantibody biomarker service and a second contract expected to be signed in the next few days.

“We are also excited to have signed the agreement with EORTC for a profiling collaboration for the important, much-needed drug, Keytruda.”

Dr Hill said the agreements further demonstrated the applicability and significance of the firm’s ImmunoINSIGHTS service to “key players” within both the pharmaceutical industry and research field, representing “another endorsement” of the capabilities of ImmunoINSIGHTS to contribute to medical innovation.

“We also have forthcoming collaborations with two leading US-based academic institutions within CAR-T and CAR-NK represent an exciting expansion of our technology platform into these fast-growing markets.

“These contracts announced today and earlier this month underpin the commercial momentum we are currently experiencing and we look forward to building on this in the coming months.”

At 1228 GMT, shares in Oncimmune Holdings were up 7.69% at 168p.