Benzinga | Jan 4, 2022 07:22AM EST

Genocea Biosciences Enters R&D Collaboration And Option Agreement With Janssen

Genocea Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNCA), a biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation neoantigen immunotherapies, has entered into an R&D collaboration and option agreement with Janssen Biotech, Inc., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, to explore the immunogenicity of neoantigens and the role and impact of Inhibigens(tm) in the context of vaccine therapies for cancer. The agreement was facilitated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation.

Under the collaboration, Genocea will use its clinically validated ATLAS(tm) platform to characterize Janssen-identified antigens as well as assess approaches that could mitigate the impact of Inhibigens. Genocea will receive a technology access fee and full R&D funding for its work under the collaboration. The agreement includes an option for Janssen to negotiate a future strategic partnership to develop non-personalized vaccine products using Genocea's ATLAS platform and expertise on Inhibigens.

"ATLAS is the only technology that can identify Inhibigens, pro-tumor antigens that can undermine otherwise effective immunotherapies," said Chip Clark, Genocea's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are delighted to work with Janssen on this novel biology that has important implications for cancer treatment."

GEN-011 TiTAN trial update

Genocea reported significant progress in the Phase 1/2a TiTAN clinical trial for its lead program GEN-011, a neoantigen-targeted peripheral T cell (NPT) therapy candidate. GEN-011 is comprised only of CD8+ and CD4+ T cells, extracted from the patient's peripheral blood, specific for ATLAS-prioritized neoantigens. GEN-011 has the potential to be differentiated from other cell therapies because of the breadth of surface-presented neoantigens it targets and the ease of manufacturing tumor-relevant T cells extracted from readily accessible peripheral blood. Patients receive either GEN-011 in multiple fractional doses without lymphodepletion and with intermediate doses of IL-2, or as a single dose after lymphodepletion and with intermediate or high doses of IL-2.