Slaughter and May is advising Immunocore on a collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Slaughter and May is advising Immunocore Limited, the world’s leading T cell receptor (“TCR”) company developing biological drugs to treat cancer, infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases, on a collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Under the terms of the collaboration, the Foundation will invest up to $40 million to support development of Immunocore’s ImmTAV™ (Immune mobilising monoclonal TCRs Against Virus) and ImmTAB™ (Immune mobilising monoclonal TCRs Against Bacteria) therapeutics for infectious diseases that pose a global health challenge. The collaboration will discover and develop ImmTAV and ImmTAB molecules for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB), where the TCR-based therapeutics have the potential to reduce treatment timelines and improve patient outcomes.

The investment by the Foundation was made as part of its programme-related investments (PRI) strategy, which aims to stimulate private sector-driven innovation, encourage market-driven efficiencies and attract external capital to priority global health and development initiatives that improve the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people.