NEW YORK – Touchlight and Odimma Therapeutics said on Wednesday that they have inked a development and supply agreement for a clinical trial evaluating Odimma's personalized neoantigen-based immunotherapy.
The trial, expected to begin enrolling patients in 2023, will evaluate the therapy, ODI-2001, which delivers personalized neoantigens such that patients' own immune cells can recognize and attack tumors. According to Odimma, the therapy has demonstrated immune responses against non-self-antigens and anti-tumor effects in preclinical models.
Under the terms of the agreement, Hampton, UK-based Touchlight will supply its doggybone DNA, or dbDNA, vector produced through enzymatic manufacturing. According to the partnered firms, this manufacturing process takes just five days, a time frame that Strasbourg, France-based Odimma says will help address some of the supply-chain and turnaround-time challenges typical of DNA vectors.
The dbDNA can accommodate genes of interest of more than 20 kb and is both adaptable and scalable, according to Touchlight.
"The agreement between Odimma and Touchlight is an important step forward to secure Odimma's clinical development," Jean-Marc Limacher, Odimma's chairman, said in a statement. "Not only is Touchlight's technology producing genetic material with very favorable characteristics for a clinical use but also in a time frame extremely adapted to a personalized immunotherapy in oncology."
Odimma previously partnered with ABL Europe to supply viral vectors for ODI-2001 development.