• New site-specific conjugation technology for homogenous antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs)
  • Provides further opportunities for portfolio expansion and partnering

MARSEILLE, France I October 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 that its new, site-specific conjugation technology will be presented today at the World ADC Summit, taking place in San Francisco, CA, October 14-17, 2013.

A detailed presentation will be given by Florence Lhospice, Director, Pharmaceutical Operations, at 3:00-3.30pm local time: “Towards Homogenous ADCs: A New Site-Specific Conjugation based on Bacterial Transglutaminase”.

Herve Brailly, CEO of Innate Pharma, said: “Antibody drug conjugates are a very promising and validated class of antibody drugs that can potentially be combined with immunomodulating antibodies. Innate Pharma’s proprietary technology presented today addresses a bottleneck in ADCs development: rapidly obtaining homogenous ADCs based on a minimal change of the manufacturing process. It is a versatile approach that may be used for a broad spectrum of target antigens and which can accommodate both existing and future high potency toxins. This technical achievement creates new opportunities for portfolio expansion and partnering”.

About Innate Pharma’s ADC technology:

Innate Pharma’s coupling technology uses bacterial transglutaminase (BTG) enzyme. A single point mutation in the antibody’s heavy chain generates either two or four enzyme-recognition sites, and linkers have been optimized to couple quantitatively at these positions.

The process results in homogeneous ADCs with a drug-to-antibody ratio of exactly 2:1 or 4:1 in a robust and time-efficient manner. The coupling is site-specific with minimal antibody scaffold modification, therefore only adding a step in an already well-established manufacturing procedure widely accepted by regulators. The technology has been validated in preclinical models.

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 new 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.

Incorporated in 1999 and listed on NYSE-Euronext in Paris in 2006, Innate Pharma is based in Marseilles, France, and had 84 employees as at June 30, 2013.

SOURCE: Innate Pharma