OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Pure MHC, LLC and Myrio Therapeutics Pty Ltd (Myrio) today announced a collaboration to develop new antibody-based oncology therapeutics. The companies will combine Pure MHC’s proprietary offering of MHC peptide targets for oncology with Myrio’s revolutionary Retained Display(tm) (ReD) antibody discovery process to initially create up to three novel therapies based on targets distinct to tumors across multiple types of cancer.
The cancer therapies resulting from this collaboration will represent a unique synergism: Myrio’s ReD platform is differentiated in its ability to routinely identify antibodies that bind to peptides from intracellular proteins presented on the cell surface by major histocompatibility complex (MHC), and Pure MHC is a world-leader in the identification and validation of peptide/MHC (pMHC) targets. Antibodies to next generation pMHC oncology targets may provide more efficacious therapies, particularly for solid tumors, while minimizing off-target effects for patients.
Researchers at both companies expressed excitement at the prospect of combining these innovative approaches:
“The speed and flexibility of Myrio’s ReD platform enables the generation of robust antibody-based therapies against challenging targets like pMHC with high affinity and specificity,” said Myrio’s CEO Pete Smith. “Pure MHC’s curated pMHC targets are an excellent fit for our platform and substantially de-risk downstream development.”
Pure MHC’s Chief Scientist, William Hildebrand, PhD shared this enthusiasm, “Pure MHC is dedicated to the identification of pMHC complexes distinct to cancer and absent from healthy tissues. Peptide/MHC complexes for several oncology indications have been identified by Pure MHC as present on tumors yet absent from healthy tissue, and we are excited for Myrio to deploy their cutting-edge technology to engineer antibodies that recognize our targets with great specificity.”
From a business perspective, these therapeutic candidates will bolster Myrio’s existing portfolio of in-house assets while providing Pure MHC access to a powerful antibody platform that enables multiple therapeutic pipelines.
“Myrio’s platform is not just an outstanding scientific fit, the collaboration represents a unique and exciting way for Pure MHC to deploy its novel target assets strategically,” said Kris Looney, President of Pure MHC. “As we continue to provide targets from our pipeline to the market via more traditional partner licensing models, we felt the time was right to also establish our own therapeutic pipeline and have found exactly the collaborator we need in Myrio.”
Pete Smith agreed, “With the close alignment of both scientific and business objectives between our two companies, a partnership between Myrio and Pure MHC just makes so much sense. We are excited about its potential.”
The companies expect the collaboration to yield therapeutic candidates within the next twelve months.
About Myrio Therapeutics
Myrio Therapeutics is driving a new frontier of antibody-based therapies as the company’s Retained Display(tm) (ReD) antibody platform offers identification of highly specific human antibodies that bind to peptide-MHC complexes. Myrio’s antibodies can readily be converted into multispecific, CAR-T or other formats, dramatically increasing the target landscape for these modalities. Visit: http://www.myriotx.com/
About Pure MHC
Pure MHC, LLC is a platform technology company funded and managed by Emergent Technologies, Inc. with expertise in disease-specific target identification and validation as well as immunotherapeutic drug development for cancer, infectious disease, and autoimmune diseases. The Pure MHC target discovery technology was developed by Chief Scientist William Hildebrand, Ph.D., of the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center. For more information, visit: https://puremhc.com/
About Emergent Technologies
Emergent Technologies, Inc. is an innovation solutions and technology commercialization leader headquartered in Austin, Texas. Visit: http://www.etibio.com/
Related link: https://puremhc.com/
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