Woodford Patient Capital updates on three investments – has released some news on Immunocore, Mission Therapeutics and Spin Memory.
Immunocore
Immunocore has entered into a new partnership with Genentech, part of the Roche Group, to expand an existing discovery collaboration. As part of the agreement, Genentech will pay Immunocore $100 million in upfront and near-term milestone payments.
Under the terms of the agreement with Genentech, Immunocore will lead the first-in-human clinical trial to establish safety and preliminary efficacy of a new therapy known as IMC-C103C. The clinical trial, which is scheduled to commence in early 2019, will enrol patients across a number of solid tumour types. Immunocore retains an option to continue to co-develop the therapy through commercialisation, or to fully license the candidate to Genentech in return for royalty and milestone payments upon establishing proof-of-concept data.
Spun out of Oxford University in 2008, Immunocore’s T cell receptor (TCR) technology activates a type of white blood cell known as T cells to recognise and attack cancerous ones. The company’s lead TCR asset, IMCgp 100, is currently in the final trial stages of its clinical studies for the treatment of metastatic uveal melanoma (a rare cancer of the eye that has spread, which has no current treatments). It also has a range of earlier-stage drug candidates, which are being developed as potential treatments for various types of solid cancer.
Woodford Patient Capital Trust first invested in Immunocore in July 2015. Since then, the company has continued to build a robust pipeline with substantial commercial potential, attracting investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The company has also established partnerships with a number of global leading pharmaceutical companies, such as AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and GlaxoSmithKline.
Immunocore’s weighting in Woodford Patient Capital as at 31 October 2018: 5.06%
Mission Therapeutics
On 15 November 2018, Mission Therapeutics announced a major collaboration with AbbVie, one of the world’s biggest global pharmaceutical companies, in the research and preclinical treatment of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
It is estimated that 50 million people are living with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease – a number that is expected to double every 20 years. More than 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s disease. The global Alzheimer’s disease market was valued at approximately $2.9 billion in 2016 and is expected to be worth $14.8 billion by 2026 according to GlobalData. There are currently no treatments to stop or reverse either disease’s progression, only to alleviate the symptoms.
Mission aims to improve the lives of patients suffering from a range of serious diseases including neurodegeneration, inflammation and cancer, through the development of a new class of drugs that inhibit deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs). AbbVie highlights that Mission’s scientists “have developed impressive early research toward the understanding of these diseases”.
Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases are associated with the accumulation of misfolded, toxic proteins, which are believed to cause impaired function and death of nerve cells in the brain. DUBs play an important role in keeping a cell healthy by regulating the degradation of these proteins. There are over 100 different DUBs in humans. By modulating specific DUBs within the brain, AbbVie and Mission are aiming to develop potential therapeutics that enable the degradation of these toxic proteins and prevent their accumulation.
Mission was founded in 2011 and Woodford Patient Capital first invested in the company in February 2016. The collaboration does not include any of Mission’s other lead DUB programs including USP30 and USP10.
Mission Therapeutics’ weighting in Woodford Patient Capital as at 31 October 2018: 1.31%.
Spin Memory
On 12 November 2018, Spin Memory (formerly known as Spin Transfer Technologies) announced a $52 million Series B funding round and commercial agreements with Arm, the world’s leading semi-conductor IP company, and with Nasdaq-listed Applied Materials. The funding was led by Applied Ventures (the venture capital division of Applied Materials) and Arm. The commercial agreements highlight Spin Memory’s ambition to become a leading player in the magnetic random-access memory (MRAM) market.
Spin Memory’s weighting in Woodford Patient Capital as at 31 October 2018: 0.41%
WPCT : Woodford Patient Capital updates on three investments