Boehringer Ingelheim Acquires Immunotherapy Platform

Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) announced the acquisition of all shares of AMAL Therapeutics SA, a private Swiss biotechnology company focused on cancer immunotherapy and therapeutic cancer vaccines. BI reported plans to combine assets from its cancer immunology portfolio with AMAL’s proprietary KISIMA immunization platform in a July 15, 2019 press statement announcing the acquisition

In the statement BI reported that the company’s cancer immunology group, which is designed to discover therapies that engage triggering of immune responses against non-inflamed, “cold” tumors, will use AMAL’s KISIMA vaccine technology for stimulating potent immune responses.

In 2018, BI acquired Vira Therapeutics and in-licensed of OSE Immunotherapeutics’ SIRP-alpha targeting antibody, as part of a strategy to build the company’s focus on immune cell-directed therapies.

AMAL, located on the medical campus of the University of Geneva, spun-out in 2012 with financial backing from corporate and institutional investors, including the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund. The company’s lead candidate, ATP128, is a therapeutic chimeric recombinant protein vaccine.

“I am extremely proud of the hard work of AMAL’s entire team, which is validated by this acquisition, and very excited to further develop the KISIMA technology platform within Boehringer Ingelheim,” said Madiha Derouazi, founder and chief executive officer of AMAL Therapeutics. “Our new relationship with Boehringer Ingelheim will enable us to realize the full potential of our KISIMA platform to fight solid cancers while preserving AMAL’s approach to biotechnology research and our scientific and academic networks. Moreover, sharing resources and capabilities in clinical development will greatly help us to move ATP128 and other assets forward.”

Source: Boehringer-Ingelheim