Oxford: Bill Gates' foundation to support Immunocore work

Immunocore, the world's leading TCR company developing biological drugs to treat cancer, infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases, today announced an investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the development of Immunocore's soluble TCR-based therapeutics for infectious diseases.

 The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will invest up to $40 million in Immunocore 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 tuberculosis (TB) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) where the TCR-based therapeutics have the potential to reduce treatment timelines and improve patient outcomes. Immunocore will also continue expanding its platform technology to enable therapeutics with broad coverage of the affected disease population.

The investment by the Bill & Melinda Gates 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.