United Immunity signs clinical supply agreement with Roche for UI-102 combination studies
United Immunity, Co., Ltd., a clinical-stage biotechnology company in Tokyo, Japan, advancing next-generation immunotherapies through its proprietary Myeloid Targeting Platform™, has entered into a Master Clinical Supply Agreement with Roche. The agreement covers the supply of atezolizumab (Tecentriq®), a humanised anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody checkpoint inhibitor, and will support future clinical studies evaluating UI-102, a TLR7/8 agonist encapsulated in a pullulan nanoparticle, in combination with atezolizumab.
Expanding the Phase 1/2 trial
The collaboration will enable the expansion of United Immunity’s ongoing Phase 1/2 first-in-human clinical trial (NCT07605962). The study is designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy of UI-102 as both a monotherapy and in combination with atezolizumab in patients with advanced solid tumours.
Reprogramming the tumour microenvironment
Most solid tumours fail to respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors because they possess an immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment that limits anti-tumour immune activity. UI-102 is designed to reprogramme immuno-suppressive M2-like tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) into pro-inflammatory M1-like TAMs, with the goal of converting immunologically “cold” tumours that are resistant to checkpoint inhibition into “hot”, immune-responsive tumours.
Masato Kishida, chief executive officer of United Immunity, said: “We are pleased to collaborate with Roche to advance the development of UI-102 for patients with hard-to-treat cancers. In preclinical studies, UI-102 demonstrated enhanced anti-tumour activity in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors compared with checkpoint inhibitor monotherapy in tumour models that were otherwise resistant to checkpoint blockade. We believe these findings support the potential of UI-102 to improve responses in patients whose tumours are not adequately treated with current immunotherapies.”
Platform and wider pipeline
The Myeloid Targeting Platform is designed to deliver therapeutic payloads directly to disease-associated macrophages and dendritic cells. It combines pullulan nanoparticles and PEG-free, pullulan-coated lipid nanoparticles (P-LNPs), enabling targeted delivery of a wide range of therapeutics, including small molecules, nucleic acids, peptides and proteins. UI-102, the company’s lead programme, uses the nanoparticle technology to deliver a TLR7/8 small-molecule agonist to tumour-associated macrophages. In parallel, United Immunity is developing its P-LNP platform to enable the in vivo generation of CAR-macrophages, with applications in cancer, fibrosis and autoimmune diseases.
For more information, visit: www.unitedimmunity.co.jp/eng/