CMC Biologics Announces Agreement with Immunocore for Process Transfer, Scale-up and Commercial-Scale Manufacturing of IMCgp100

Novel immunotherapeutic to be produced in CMC Biologics' microbial facility in Copenhagen 

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Oct. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- CMC Biologics, Inc., a global leader in clinical and commercial manufacturing of therapeutic proteins, today announced that they have entered into an agreement with Immunocore Limited, a leading UK-based biotechnology company focused on developing new treatments for cancer, viral infections and autoimmune diseases, for the process transfer and cGMP production of IMCgp100, Immunocore's lead product. IMCgp100 is a novel first-in-class cancer immunotherapeutic based on proprietary platform T- cell receptor (TCR) technology.

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Under the agreement, CMC Biologics will transfer and scale up Immunocore's manufacturing process for IMCgp100 in its world class microbial facility in Copenhagen, Denmark for cGMP manufacture to support Immunocore's pivotal clinical trials globally.

"We are delighted to be working with Immunocore, one of the fastest growing and innovative biotech companies in Europe," said Gustavo Mahler, PhD, Global Chief Operations Officer of CMC Biologics. "We aim to support Immunocore in their drive to achieve early approval of IMCgp100 through our continued focus on manufacturing excellence and customer service."

"We selected CMC Biologics as our manufacturing partner for IMCgp100 because of their ability to support our accelerated program for planned commercialization of IMCgp100. They have strong development capabilities with commercial cGMP facilities," said Eva-Lotta Allan, Chief Business Officer of Immunocore Limited. "The successful transfer and production of IMCgp100 is critical to meeting our aggressive clinical and commercial manufacturing timelines."

About CMC Biologics

CMC Biologics is leading the industry among CMOs in customer satisfaction, technical excellence, and quality – Right and On Time. With three facilities in the USA and Europe, the Company provides fully integrated biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing solutions to clients globally. The Company has proven expertise in delivering custom solutions for the scale-up and cGMP manufacture of protein-based therapeutics for pre-clinical, clinical trials and commercial production. The Company's wide range of integrated services includes cell line development, bioprocess development, formulation and comprehensive analytical testing. Clients can also benefit from CMC Biologics' proprietary CHEF1® expression system for mammalian production.

CMC Biologics is one of only a few CMO's that have extensive expertise with microbial manufacturing using both bacterial and yeast fed-batch processes. The Company has successfully expressed antibody fragments, growth factors, antigens, enzymes and other proteins using multiple modes of expression including secretion (yeast), periplasmic secretion, soluble intracellular expression, and inclusion bodies. CMC Biologics optimizes media, feeds and processes for high cell density E. coli and P. pastoris production. More detailed information can be found at www.cmcbiologics.com.

About Immunocore

Immunocore is one of the world's leading biotechnology companies, with a highly innovative immuno-oncology platform technology called ImmTACs. ImmTACs are a novel class of biologic drugs based on the Company's proprietary T cell receptor (TCR) technology which have the potential to treat diseases with high unmet medical need including cancer, viral infections and autoimmune diseases. Immunocore, based on decades of world-leading scientific innovation in the discovery of HLA targets and T cell receptor technology, has a pipeline of wholly-owned and partnered ImmTAC programmes with robust clinical data, validated by collaborations with world-leading pharmaceutical companies. Immunocore aims to leverage the utility of its platform across a wide range of indications to become a Premier Biotech company and world-leader in its field.

Immunocore's world-leading science and strong IP position has attracted major pharmaceutical companies including Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, MedImmune, the biologics division of AstraZeneca, via discovery collaborations, as well as a co-discovery and co-development partnership with Lilly. The Company has also entered into combination trial collaborations with its lead programme, IMCgp100 in melanoma, with MedImmune and Lilly. Founded in 2008 originally out of Oxford University and headquartered outside Oxford, Immunocore is well funded and now has more than 170 staff. For more information, please visit www.immunocore.com.