Roche ramps up immunotherapy R&D

Roche said it will invest up to SFr100m (€93,1m) into a newly launched global network of cancer immunotherapy centres of excellence dubbed imCORE. The task of the 21 academic centres is to identify and prioritise the most promising new treatment approaches and to rapidly conduct clinical trials. Under the agreement, imCORE experts will share technologies, know-how, data and expertise in order to broaden the number of responders to existing and investigational cancer immunotherapies. The collaboration will also comprise diagnostic technologies and emerging data. The translational research investment will complement collaboration with biotech companies. 

Current response rates to checkpoint modulators such as atezolizumab range between 20% and 30%, mostly in cancer subtypes with the so-called inflamed phenotype, where cancer-antigen-specific T cells have been produced by the immune system and have entered the tumour. Roche, which had a late start in cancer immunotherapy (CIT) but now has 20 (CIT) programmes, ten thereof in clinical development, now aims to extend the number of patients responding to these cancers. Additionally, the company is pursuing the goal to target so-called immune-excluded cancers, where T cells have been produced but could not enter the tumour due to immune-dampening conditions in the tumour microenvironment. Another goal is to target the so-called immune desert, that is cancers which didn’t present specific cancer neo-antigens at their surface leading to a lack of cancer-specific T cells in patients.

 “We believe the fastest way to advance progress against cancer is through collaboration, and consistent with our values, the goal of imCORE is to facilitate access to new technologies and emerging data among the top researchers around the world,” said Sandra Horning, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Product Development. “imCORE represents our most recent commitment to collaborate with the global cancer community to further understand the biology and immunology of cancer and to develop new treatments that may one day offer a cure for people with cancer.’’