Selexis SA and OSE Immunotherapeutics signs agreement for development of OSE’s interleukin receptor 7 antagonist

Selexis SA and OSE Immunotherapeutics announced that they have signed a commercial license agreement that provides OSE Immunotherapeutics with access to high performance research cell banks (RCBs) from the Selexis SUREtechnology Platform. The agreement was build upon previous collaboration between the two companies as announced in November 2016 and is designed to support the advancement of the clinical development of OSE’s interleukin receptor 7 antagonist, OSE-127 (Effi-7), under development as a potential treatment for inflammatory bowel diseases, such as ulcerative colitis.

Selexis vice president, licensing and business development, Marco Bocci said that based on the successful completion of their initial work on the OSE-127 program, they are pleased to broaden the scope of their collaboration with OSE Immunotherapeutics. The broad applicability of their technology, coupled with their robust cell lines, provides their partners with the opportunity to continue working with us long-term across their drug development cycles. They look forward to helping OSE Immunotherapeutics realize the full potential of OSE-127.

OSE Immunotherapeutics CEO, Dominique Costantini said that they are pleased to advance their collaboration with Selexis with the initiation of a key step for our immunotherapy OSE-127 towards the clinical stage and its development in ulcerative colitis.

OSE-127 is a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting the CD127 receptor (the alpha chain of the Interleukin 7 receptor (IL-7R)). It induces a powerful antagonist effect for better control of the pathogenic T lymphocytes involved in autoimmune diseases. The strategy of blocking the IL-7 has demonstrated efficacy in restoring the impaired immune balance in autoimmune diseases of the bowel in several preclinical models, such as ulcerative colitis.