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

Innate Pharma

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