CytomX Therapeutics, Moderna announce strategic research collaboration

CytomX Therapeutics (CTMX) and Moderna (MRNA) announced a collaboration and licensing agreement to create investigational mRNA-based conditionally activated therapies utilizing Moderna’s mRNA technologies and CytomX’s Probody therapeutic platform. The research collaboration will leverage core scientific advances at Moderna and CytomX. Moderna’s mRNA platform builds on continuous advances in basic and applied mRNA science, delivery technology and manufacturing, and has allowed the development of therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and autoimmune diseases. CytomX’s Probody technology enables proteins to be activated locally in diseased tissue, while remaining masked in systemic circulation. These advances open up the strategy of encoding potent, masked biologics with mRNA, for the potential treatment of a wide range of diseases.