MD Anderson and Enumeral enter into collaborative research and development agreement

Strategic collaboration aims to discover and develop potentially novel antibodies against specified targets for immunotherapy

MD Anderson News Release January 11, 2016

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center today announced that it has entered into a collaborative research and development agreement with Enumeral Biomedical Holdings Inc. 

Scientists from Enumeral and MD Anderson will collaborate on the discovery and development of novel monoclonal antibodies against specified targets in immuno-oncology, leveraging Enumeral’s antibody discovery and patient-centric immune profiling platform and MD Anderson’s pre-clinical and development expertise and infrastructure. Under the terms of the agreement, Enumeral and MD Anderson will share the costs of such research and development activities, and will each be granted the right to receive a percentage of the net income from product sales or any payments associated with licensing or otherwise partnering a program with a third party.

“This strategic collaboration leverages the considerable experience of MD Anderson in translational medicine and clinical oncology and Enumeral’s core strengths of antibody discovery and patient-centric functional immune profiling," said Arthur H. Tinkelenberg, Ph.D., Enumeral’s president and chief executive officer.  “With our platform’s ability to measure the effects of novel antibody candidates on human lymphocyte function in tumor biopsy samples from patients, and MD Anderson’s deep expertise and infrastructure for pre-clinical and clinical oncology product development, we believe working with MD Anderson and their Oncology Research for Biologics and Immunotherapy Translation (ORBIT) team is an ideal way to accelerate the discovery and development of novel antibody therapies which may increase the rates of response and provide for more durable outcomes in the treatment of cancer.”

ORBIT is a translational research platform of MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program, which aims to accelerate the conversion of scientific knowledge into clinical advances that reduce cancer deaths.

“With its team of industry-seasoned scientists embedded in a top-notch cancer center, ORBIT was launched to establish this type of collaboration,” said Carlo Toniatti, M.D., Ph.D., executive director of ORBIT. “Successful development of novel anti-cancer antibodies requires faultless integration of drug development expertise, deep biological knowledge and clinical development capabilities. We are confident that through this collaboration we will accelerate the delivery of innovative and efficacious therapies to our patients.”