Immunocore: Affinity for effective killing

Immunocore Ltd. is looking to breathe new life into a program that got its start 10 years ago inside Avidex Ltd., which was spun out of the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford in 1999. MediGene AG acquired Avidex in 2006 for its clinical small molecule RhuDex, then spun out its monoclonal T cell receptor technology to form Immunocore last year.

While native T cell receptors have low affinity for their targets and lack an effector function, Immunocore expects its mTCRs to be able to target intracellular antigens with high affinity, and it has engineered in an effector function to enable killing of target cells...