Moderna and Immatics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing T cell-redirecting cancer immunotherapies, entered into a strategic research and development collaboration to pioneer transformative therapies for cancer patients with high unmet medical need. Immatics will receive $120 million upfront plus research funding with the potential for additional milestone and royalty payments.

The broad multi-platform collaboration will leverage the deep scientific expertise and core operational capabilities of both companies, combining Immatics’ TCR platform with Moderna’s mRNA technology, and span various therapeutic modalities including bispecifics, cell therapy and cancer vaccines.

The collaboration focuses on three aras: applying Moderna’s mRNA technology for in vivo expression of Immatics’ next-generation, half-life extended TCR bispecifics (TCER) targeting cancer-specific HLA-presented peptides; enabling the discovery and development of mRNA-based cancer vaccines leveraging Immatics’ tumor and normal tissue data included in the target discovery platform XPRESIDENT and its bioinformatics and AI platform XCUBE; and evaluating Immatics’ IMA203 TCR-T therapy targeting PRAME in combination with Moderna’s PRAME mRNA-based cancer vaccine.

The companies plan to conduct preclinical studies and a Phase 1 trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of the combination with the objective of further enhancing IMA203 T cell responses.

“We are excited to embark on this strategic collaboration with Immatics, a pioneer in developing innovative cancer immunotherapies,” said Rose Loughlin, Moderna’s senior vice president for research and early development. “This partnership presents a groundbreaking opportunity to leverage our mRNA technology alongside Immatics’ TCR platform, potentially diversifying and augmenting the way we approach cancer treatment. We believe this collaboration will accelerate the development of novel oncology therapies and bring us one step closer to providing significant benefits for patients with high unmet medical needs.”

Toni Weinschenk, chief innovation officer at Immatics said, “We are thrilled to join forces with Moderna in our quest to pioneer innovative and transformative therapies to combat cancer. We believe Immatics’ cancer target and TCR platforms, along with Moderna’s cutting-edge mRNA technology, represent a powerful combination that has the potential to deliver meaningful benefits to cancer patients. The rapid advancement of our first 2 TCER programs into the clinic, with additional TCER compounds fueling our pre-clinical pipeline, underscores our commitment to develop innovative therapeutics,” Carsten Reinhardt, chief development officer of Immatics.”