Benzinga | Jan 5, 2021 05:50AM EST

Innate's First NK Cell Engager Selected by Sanofi as Drug Candidate for Development

Innate Pharma SA (NASDAQ:IPHA) ("Innate" or the "Company") today announced that Sanofi (NYSE:SNY) has made the decision to progress IPH6101/SAR443579 into investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies. IPH6101/SAR443579 is a NKp46-based NK cell engager (NKCE) using Innate's proprietary multispecific antibody format (Gauthier et al. Cell 2019).

In the first research program of the collaboration, IPH6101/SAR443579 has shown anti-tumor activity in pre-clinical models, including encouraging pharmacokinetic (PK), pharmacodynamic (PD) and safety data in preliminary non-human primate studies, as well as positive manufacturability properties, leading to its selection as a drug candidate for development.

The decision triggered a 7M milestone payment from Sanofi to Innate. Sanofi will be responsible for all future development, manufacturing and commercialization of IPH6101/SAR443579.

This milestone is part of the previously announced research collaboration with Sanofi, under which the companies collaborate on the generation and evaluation of up to two bispecific NKCEs, using technology from Innate and Sanofi's proprietary bispecific antibody formats as well as tumor targets. The companies are also currently working on the second research program.

"We are very pleased that Sanofi will work to bring IPH6101/SAR443579 towards the clinic, as it highlights the potential of engaging NK cells through NKp46, as well as the robustness of Innate's proprietary multi-specific antibody format," said Pr. Eric Vivier, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Innate Pharma. "We believe IPH6101/SAR443579 is the first NKp46-based NK cell engager to start development, demonstrating the next wave of scientific innovation at Innate. This successful validation will also be valuable for our second ongoing research program with Sanofi, and ultimately, the overall Innate NK cell engager platform."

Innate's multifunctional NKCE technology is comprised of novel antibody formats that simultaneously target two activating receptors, NKp46 and CD16, on NK cells as well as a tumor antigen on cancer cells.

Such trifunctional NKCEs have proven more effective in pre-clinical models than classical antibodies directed against the same tumor target, as co-engagement of multiple surface receptors on NK cells is required for their full activation.

NKCEs may show improved therapeutic window for cancer treatment as compared to bispecific T lymphocyte-engaging formats.