Sanofi, Innate Pharma partner to develop new bispecific antibodies in immuno-oncology

Under a research collaboration and licensing agreement, the companies will work together to generate and evaluate up to two bispecific NK cell engagers using Innate Pharma’s technology and Sanofi’s technology and tumor targets.

Sanofi will lead development, manufacturing and marketing of any products. Innate Pharma could receive payments of nearly €400m and royalties on net sales.

Innate Pharma has generated a technology to specifically induce tumor killing by NK cells using its knowledge of the activating receptor Nkp46, which is the most specific marker of human NK cells and plays a major role in their tumor cell recognition.

Innate Pharma chief scientific officer Nicolai Wagtmann said: "This new technology platform is complementary to our innovative portfolio of first-in-class antibodies targeting immune checkpoints.

"We intend to use it for our internal portfolio expansion, as well as through non-exclusive agreements with other companies, such as in this agreement with Sanofi."

Last year, Sanofi has launched several inter-company collaborations in the field of immuno-oncology. The company is also collaborating with BioNTech to discover and develop up to five cancer immunotherapies.

Image: Sanofi’s immunology platform, diphtheria test on cells – Toronto R & D Center (Canada). Photo: courtesy of Christian Fleury / Capa Pictures.