ImaginAb Announces Immuno-Oncology License and Clinical Trial Collaboration with Nektar Therapeutics

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- ImaginAb Inc., an immuno-oncology imaging company, today announced that it has entered into a non-exclusive license and clinical trial collaboration with Nektar Therapeutics (Nasdaq: NKTR). Under the terms of the agreement, Nektar will use ImaginAb's CD8 ImmunoPET technology to measure whole body and tumor CD8+ T cells' density and distribution in cancer patients. The collaboration will provide important mechanistic insight into various candidates in Nektar's immuno-oncology portfolio.

"Our goal is to help companies accelerate the research and development of next-generation cancer immunotherapies, so clinicians can treat cancer patients more effectively," said Martyn Coombs, Chief Executive Officer of ImaginAb. "Working with Nektar, one of the world's leading biotechnology companies, will help us further develop CD8 ImmunoPET as an imaging agent and platform."

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"Novel PET biomarkers are essential to better understand and rationally develop next-generation immunotherapies, and ImaginAb's CD8 ImmunoPET technology is designed to give us a non-invasive whole-body view of immune system activity," said Jonathan Zalevsky, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Nektar. "Through this partnership with ImaginAb, we now have access to a novel and important technology that can simultaneously measure CD8+ T cells in multiple tissues, including all target and non-target tumor lesions. Since the proliferation and tumor-infiltration of CD8+ T cells is a key mechanistic feature of our pipeline candidates, including NKTR-214, we have the potential to use this technology in future clinical trials to potentially expedite the development of our immuno-oncology pipeline therapies."

About ImaginAb
ImaginAb Inc. is an immuno-oncology imaging company focused on providing actionable insight into patient selection and treatment progress for cancer immunotherapy, enabling precision medicine. ImaginAb engineers antibody fragments called minibodies that maintain the exquisite specificity of full-length antibodies while remaining inert in the body. Used with widely available PET scan technology, these novel minibodies illuminate high-value molecular targets, providing physicians with a whole-body picture of immune activity. ImaginAb is also advancing a best-in-class imaging agent to improve prostate cancer management and patient outcomes, as well as developing a pipeline for other targets in oncology and immunology. ImaginAb's products have the potential to improve patient care and lower healthcare costs.
For more information please see www.imaginab.com.   

About Nektar Therapeutics
Nektar Therapeutics is a research-based, development stage biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover and develop innovative medicines to address the unmet medical needs of patients. Our R&D pipeline of new investigational medicines includes treatments for cancer, auto-immune disease and chronic pain. We leverage Nektar's proprietary and proven chemistry platform in the discovery and design of our new therapeutic candidates. Nektar is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with additional operations in Huntsville, Alabama and Hyderabad, India. Further information about the company and its drug development programs and capabilities may be found online at http://www.nektar.com.

Media Contact for ImaginAb:
Caroline V. Corner, PhD
Westwicke Partners
+1 415-202-5678

SOURCE ImaginAb, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.imaginab.com