Medigene AG Secures European Patent for its iM-TCR Technology

Planegg/Martinsried, April 4, 2024. Medigene AG (Medigene, FSE: MDG1, Prime Standard), an immuno-oncology platform company focusing on the discovery and development of T cell immunotherapies for solid tumors, today announced that the Company has been issued a patent by the European Patent Office protecting its inducible Medigene T cell receptor (iM-TCR) technology, which contains a control mechanism to regulate efficacy and improve safety of its T cell receptor engineered T cell (TCR-T) therapies.

“Over the past years we have conscientiously built an extensive international intellectual property portfolio across major markets, which we expect will provide a significant competitive advantage. Each technology we design and develop aims to enhance efficacy and mitigate safety risk to the patient and is based on our extensive immunology research and experience. We are pleased to receive this latest patent grant for our iM-TCR technology from the European Patent Office, which complements our recently granted patent in Japan,” said Dolores Schendel, CSO at Medigene. “At the core of our comprehensive expertise in T cell immunology, specifically TCR-based therapies, is our ability to generate optimal TCRs. Our decades of research and development is manifested in our innovative, proprietary End-to-End Platform technologies, such as the iM-TCR that has the potential to optimize safety and efficacy of TCR-T therapies for patients.”

TCR-T therapies have demonstrated that they can effectively kill tumor cells. However, excessive activation of T cells may lead to premature exhaustion or cell death, as well as unwanted overactivity and the potential development of inflammatory responses in the body. The iM-TCR technology modifies the TCR to achieve control of TCR surface expression, allowing for fine-tuning of activity against tumor cells and thereby reducing potential inflammatory responses in the body. This property is of potential benefit not only to our current autologous TCR-T therapy assets, but potentially also applicable to other TCR-T based modalities. Additionally, the iM-TCR technology can potentially expand the range of targets and indications of vital or more sensitive tissue origin and provide additional safety when expanding to other disease areas beyond oncology.