Immutep announces GMP manufacturing process developed for IMP761

Immutep announced that a GMP compliant manufacturing process has been established for IMP761, its proprietary preclinical candidate for autoimmune diseases. The 200L scale attained by Northway Biotech, an end-to-end biopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organisation, will ensure supply of IMP761 for IND-enabling studies and ensuing clinical trials. As the first immunosuppressive agonist antibody to LAG-3 acting upstream on activated T cells to target the root cause of self-antigen-specific T cell induced disease, IMP761 is a potential game-changer in how autoimmune diseases are treated. Pre-clinical testing of IMP761 in oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis, published in Pediatric Research in May 2021, showed that agonistic activation of LAG-3 in this Th1-driven autoimmune disease setting resulted in a decreased secretion of nearly all measured cytokines, and that of IL-10, IL-12, IL-1beta, IL-4, and IL-6 reached the level of significance. Immutep CEO Marc Voigt said: "We are pleased to have a GMP manufacturing process for IMP761 in hand with our manufacturing partner Northway Biotech as we move towards initiating IND-enabling studies in the first half of 2023 and subsequent clinical development. As a first-in-class LAG-3 immunosuppressive antibody, IMP761 has been designed to address the root cause of autoimmune diseases by specifically silencing self-reactive exhausted effector T cells that express LAG-3 and accumulate at disease sites."