Toll-like receptor 3 deals
Marseille-based biotech Innate Pharma on June 19 announced two deals to forward its plans to develop Toll-Like-Receptor 3 (TLR3) therapeutics for breast cancer. In a deal with Schering-Plough, the company will in-license TLR3-related technology and intellectual property from the New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company, with both partners retaining an option of some rights to the other's TLR3 product candidates. The company has also established a TLR3-focused research collaboration with the Gustave-Roussy institute, a leading French cancer research center. It already has two cancer therapies in clinical trials—a natural killer T cell modulator in phase 1 (Nat. Biotechnol. 24, 597, 2006) and a delta T cell activator in phase 2. Two days after inking the TLR3 deals, Innate Pharma announced plans for an initial public offering in the near future. Toll-like receptors “are definitely a promising space,” says Reni Benjamin, senior biotech analyst at Rodman and Renshaw in New York City. To date, companies developing TLR-based therapeutics have targeted TLR9, TLR7 and TLR4 (Nat. Biotechnol. 24, 230–231, 2006). Although individual companies tend to focus on one receptor subtype, “everyone believes in combination approaches,” says Arthur Kreig, CEO of Coley Pharmaceuticals, a Massachsuetts company developing TLR7 and TLR9-based therapeutics in partnership with Pfizer. AK
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