TCR Engineered T-Cells 2018: coming out of the shadow to the light

The next two years will give definitive clues about the prospects of this promising treatment modality for solid tumors

STUTTGART, Germany I May 23, 2018 I T-Cell Receptors (TCR) and Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR) are the cutting edge of adoptive T-cell therapy. Both receptors deploy T-cells to target the tumor, but CAR T-cells (CAR-T) are limited to binding to cell surface antigens, while TCR T-cells (TCR-T) recognize peptides (derived from intracellular proteins) presented on the cell surface by the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I.

Adoptive T-cell therapy has come of age with the recent approvals of two CAR-T therapeutics targeting CD19 (Kymriah and Yescarta) demonstrating feasibility of clinical development with impressive results and of personalized manufacturing & logistics. It remains to be seen whether these autologous CAR-Ts will live up commercial expectations, as first quarter 2018 sales of Kymriah were far below expectations (only US$ 12 mln). The final prices of US$ 475,000 (Kymriah) and US$ 373,000 mln (Yescarta) are challenging the commercial viability of autologous CAR-T therapy. Allogeneic cell therapy might be one technological solution for the pricing problem.

While CAR-Ts performed very well for hematologic malignancies, they did less for solid tumors. Furthermore, CAR-T therapy is restricted to cell surface proteins which constitute about 20-25% of all available targets on a solid tumors, leaving nearly 80% of intracellular targets untapped by CAR-T therapy or by conventional antibody therapy.

The concept of TCR T-cell therapy actually predates CAR-Ts, but suffered a series of setbacks due to toxicity caused by cross-reactivity with related and unrelated peptides prompting the development of much more sophisticated specificity screening systems. But TCR-Ts are catching up as evidenced by ten different company-related TCR-Ts entering clinical development in the last two years and further nine in preparation of clinical trials. Significant deals between TCR-T companies and major Pharma/Biotech further underline the promise of TCR-T technologies.

In this new report released by La Merie Publishing the competitive landscape of target and TCR disovery technologies, TCR-T pipeline, stakeholders, TCR-T manufacturing, deals and financing is described and analyzed. The report „TCR Engineered T-Cell Therapy 2018: an industry analysis of technologies, pipelines, stakeholders & deals“ brings you up-to-date and gives you answers to key questions about

• target discovery & selection,
• technologies for generation of TCRs,
• neoantigen-specific TCRs,
• off-the-shelf TCR-Ts,
• the TCR-T pipeline,
• manufacturing strategies,
• next generation TCR-Ts,
• key players,
• competition,
• corporate strategy,
• deals and acquisitions and
• financing.

The report can be acquired at La Merie Publishing‘ online store www.pipelinereview.com (https://www.pipelinereview.com/index.php/store-online/tcr-engineered-t-cell-therapy-2018-an-industry-analysis-of-technologies,-pipelines,-stakeholders-deals-detail ). There you will find samples pages, a detailed Table of Contents, a list of Tables and of companies discussed in the report.

About La Merie Publishing

La Merie Publishing prepares brief and full reports as well as competitor analysis reports, the latter in a tabulated format with structured listings of industry-relevant data. One of our top-selling listings are the annual editions of „Blockbuster Biologics – Sales of Recombinant Therapeutic Antibodies & Proteins“. La Merie Publishing products can be purchased in our online store at www.pipelinereview.com or at selected Resellers.

The focus of our products is directed towards therapeutic biologics, such as antibodies, proteins, peptides, vaccines and gene & cell therapy. We pay special attention to biosimilar antibodies and proteins, antibody drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies, TCR & CAR engineered antibodies, mRNA vaccines & therapeutics, oncolytic viruses and immuno-oncology in general.

To leverage our expertise and knowledge accumulated in our in-house database, we offer consultancy services for corporate customers, including, but not limited to, pipeline analysis reports, drug profiles and any other competitive intelligence elaboration of interest for our clients.

SOURCE: La Merie Publishing