• MICA validated as a novel target for antibody drug development in solid tumors
  • IPH43 program now aims at selection and optimization of the best development candidate

MARSEILLE, France I November 15, 2013 I Innate Pharma SA (the “Company” – Euronext Paris: FR0010331421 – IPH), the innate immunity company developing first-in-class drug candidates for cancer and inflammatory diseases, announces the initiation of a new program to develop an anti-MICA therapeutic antibody in oncology. The program, named IPH43, is the newest to emerge from Innate Pharma’s discovery platform.

MICA is a highly polymorphic ligand of the NK cell activating receptor NKG2D. MICA is specifically expressed on several highly prevalent solid tumors including breast, colorectal and lung. Innate Pharma has generated a panel of high affinity antibodies recognizing all forms of MICA which is now being tested and optimized to select the best development candidate.

Nicolai Wagtmann, CSO of Innate Pharma, said: “MICA’s very clean expression profile on tumor cells and not healthy cells makes it an exciting target for cancer. Like with lirilumab, we successfully generated antibodies overcoming target polymorphism, which is a major challenge and a pre-requisite for development. We now look forward to applying our state-of-the-art immunopharmacology and antibody-engineering platforms to further advance IPH43 towards clinical development.”

Herve Brailly, CEO of Innate Pharma, added: “Together with the recent start of IPH4102 development, the launch of the IPH43 program illustrates Innate Pharma’s creativity and ability to spot novel targets for development of first-in-class antibody candidates in immuno-oncology. Our discovery effort is a key element for value creation. We generated three first-in-class candidates brought to clinic with pharma partners and we are pleased to now progress a second wave of these projects towards the clinic.”

A poster on this program was presented at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting, November 7-10, 2013, National Harbor, MD, USA: “Targeting MICA with therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer”, Saturday, November 9 from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm and 6:15 pm – 7:15 pm, Poster 42. The poster is available on Innate Pharma’s website.

About Innate Pharma:

Innate Pharma S.A. is a biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class immunotherapy drug candidates for cancer and inflammatory diseases.

The Company specializes in the development of novel monoclonal antibodies targeting receptors and pathways controlling the activation of innate immunity cells. Its innovative approaches have led to licensing agreements with Novo Nordisk A/S and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

SOURCE: Innate Pharma