Innate Pharma in-licenses OREGA biotech's first-in-class anti-CD39 checkpoint inhibitor program

Innate Pharma (OTC:

) and OREGA Biotech today announce that they have entered into an exclusive licensing agreement by which OREGA Biotech grants Innate Pharma full worldwide rights to its program of first-in-class anti-CD39 checkpoint inhibitors. This license agreement arose from a fruitful research collaboration between the two companies initiated in 2014. CD39, initially discovered as a checkpoint inhibitor by OREGA Biotech's cofounder Dr. Armand Bensussan in collaboration with INSERM, is expressed on both regulatory T cells and tumor cells. It plays a major role in promoting immunosuppression through the pathway degrading adenosine triphosphate (ATP) into adenosine. Within the tumor microenvironment, ATP promotes immune cell-mediated killing of cancer cells. In contrast, adenosine accumulation causes immune suppression and dysregulation of immune cell infiltrates resulting in tumor spreading. Blockade of CD39 may therefore stimulate anti-tumor immunity across a wide range of tumors[1] by preventing the production of adenosine and by promoting the accumulation of