Gates Foundation Ploughs $40M To Develop Immunotherapies
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is investing up to $40 million in U.K.-based Immunocore to spur research into the use of T cell receptor (TCR)-based therapeutics to treat tuberculosis and HIV.
Immunocore Limited, the world’s leading TCR company developing biological drugs to treat cancer, infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases, has attracted the attention of the Gates Foundation, prompting the world’s largest charitable foundation to invest up to $40 million in the company. Immunocore will use the money to advance programs against tuberculosis and HIV.
The investment by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was made as part of its programme-related investments (PRI) strategy, which aims to stimulate private sector-driven innovation, encourage market-driven efficiencies and attract external capital to priority global health and development initiatives that improve the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people.
The investment by the Gates Foundation is reminiscent of others it has made in biotechs. Kymab, another British biotech, and Lodo Therapeutics are among the biotechs to receive investment from the nonprofit.
Chris Karp, M.D., director of discovery & translational sciences at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, noted, “The Foundation is committed to supporting and translating scientific
research that can have a transformative impact on those conditions that cause the greatest burden of morbidity and mortality in the world at large. We are excited to support the development of Immunocore’s TCR-based platform because we believe these treatments have the potential to make a fundamental difference in the lives of patients infected with TB and HIV.”The fund will be supporting the development of Immunocore’s ImmTAV (Immune mobilising monoclonal TCRs Against Virus) and ImmTAB (Immune mobilising monoclonal TCRs Against Bacteria) therapeutics for infectious diseases that pose a global health challenge. The collaboration will discover and develop ImmTAV and ImmTAB molecules for the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) where the TCR-based therapeutics have the potential to reduce treatment timelines and improve patient outcomes. Immunocore will also continue expanding its platform technology to enable therapeutics with broad coverage of the affected disease population.
Namir Hassan, Ph.D., vp of the infectious disease unit at Immunocore, commented, “We believe the immune system harbors the capacity to resolve problematic infectious diseases, and our TCR-based therapies are well placed to mobilize this process. Our purpose in the Immunocore infectious disease unit is to revolutionize treatments for diseases such as hepatitis B, tuberculosis, and HIV and provide affordable medicines globally, including in the developing world. This collaboration will be critical to this initiative.”
