Boehringer Ingelheim to advance bacterial cancer therapeutics

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Boehringer Ingelheim is acquiring Swiss biotech T3 Pharmaceuticals AG (T3 Pharma), for up to £406 million (450 million CHF), boosting its immuno-oncology portfolio.

The pharmaceutical company will utilise T3 Pharmaceutical’s proprietary bacterial cancer therapy platform that consisting that delivers immune-modulating bioactive proteins to cancer cells and tumour micro-environments. Overall, the process enables the design of immuno-oncology combination therapies in one single agent.

Although immunotherapies have provided significant advancement in the cancer treatment landscape, long-term remissions only occur in 15-20 percent of these patients, according to Boehringer Ingelheim.

Advancing immuno-oncology therapies to ensure patient benefit

Boehringer Ingelheim’s strategy

Boehringer Ingelheim aims to boost these remission rates by harnessing immuno-oncology platforms such as T-Cell Engagers (TcEs), oncolytic viruses, and cancer vaccines, which have the potential to extend the benefits of immunotherapy to more patients.

“The acquisition of T3 Pharma will significantly expand our immuno-oncology pipeline portfolio and is synergistic with many of our existing R&D programs. This will bring us closer to achieving our vision of driving a paradigm shift in cancer care treatments,” stated Michel Pairet, Member of the Board of Managing Directors at Boehringer Ingelheim with responsibility for the Innovation Unit.

T3 Pharma is “very excited to continue and accelerate the successful development of our bacterial delivery platform as part of Boehringer Ingelheim,” declared the company’s CEO, Simon Ittig.

The immuno-oncology therapeutic market

In analysis published by GlobalData in July 2023, immuno-oncology therapies have emerged as a novel treatment category. There were a “record number of immuno-oncology approvals” in 2022, with 10 new innovative drugs being approved. If this trend continues, immuno-oncology therapies could make up a greater share of the types of oncology therapies reaching the market, Quentin Horgan, Associate Director at GlobalData stated. However, Horgan added that it is important to note: “only three [immuno-oncology] therapies [were] approved in the first half of 2023.”